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Author to speak at BSC about ND photography project

Published: Sep 26 2016
Author to speak at BSC about ND photography project - Photo
Photographer and teacher Roddy MacInnes will be at the Bismarck State College Library on Monday, Sept. 26, from 5:30–6:30 p.m. to talk about his “Finding Nina” project. 
 
The “Finding Nina” project began in 1993 when MacInnes purchased two photo albums from 1917 at an antiques mall in Denver, Colo. Intrigued by the images, he began researching the photographer, Nina Weiste, and the places she photographed in the James River area of Dickey County in North Dakota. His interest led to more than a dozen trips to North Dakota, taking photographs of the things he imagined Nina might have seen, and the people who now occupy her landscape,  trying to understand how the landscape and people have changed, or not changed.
 
Even though MacInnes never met Weiste, who died in 1983, he feels they are intimately connected.
 
“After looking at the photographs for many years, the people and places became familiar to me.  As a result of that, when I first traveled to North Dakota looking for ways to develop a project in response to Nina’s albums, I had an uncanny feeling that I was coming home,” says MacInnes whose book about the “Finding Nina” project is scheduled for release in 2017. 
 
MacInnes has been teaching photography at the University of Denver since 2001. For additional information, visit his website roddymac.com