During the past 13 months I’ve accepted a number of assignments with Minnesota Public Radio News to photograph what’s become an ongoing labor dispute between American Crystal Sugar and 1,300 union workers. The company has five processing plants in the Red River Valley. The one-year anniversary of the lockout is today and my guess is no one is celebrating. Photographs from past demonstrations and the morning of the lockout were shared previously on my journal. More recently I photographed the exterior of the processing plant in Moorhead, Minn., and also briefly passed through Hillsboro, N.D., which is home to another plant. Some of those photographs are featured here, while others were created several months ago. A story by MPR reporter Dan Gunderson aired a few days ago and is available online here.

Thanks for looking, Ann

Much of Minnesota’s Big Stone County – like many parts of the state – has been deemed a “rural food desert” by the United States Department of Agriculture. In fact, huge swaths of middle America and the people who live there have low access to healthy foods and the variety of food found at large grocery stores. Honestly, I’ve never given much thought to food distribution or availability in this part of the world. We’re surrounded by farms and fields.

For a recent assignment with Minnesota Public Radio News I spent the better part of an afternoon in Big Stone County. One of my tasks was to photograph at Bonnie’s Hometown Grocery. The small store, owned by Bonnie Carlson, is located in Clinton, Minn. The grocery is something of an oasis and provides more than just the basics. Mrs. Carlson, who doesn’t like to be photographed, was a gracious host and more than tolerated my presence. I also had the opportunity to briefly visit a small family farm outside Clinton [see bottom two photographs].

You can see more photographs and read [or listen] to the article here. It’s an interesting issue and one we might all want to consider. Thanks for looking. – Ann

My work as freelance photojournalist for Minnesota Public Radio News expanded in 2011. I completed 30-some assignments for the organization last year and was pleased to learn that nine of my photographs have been included in MPR News’ Pictures of the Year. Online photo galleries featuring photographs by both staff and freelance contributors are available here, here, here and here.

My selected images are presented in order of oldest to most recent below. Not surprising, two of the biggest news stories from the region [spring flooding and the American Crystal Sugar lock-out] are well represented. In this era of newsroom layoffs and shrinking freelance budgets, I remain grateful to the editors and reporters at MPR News for their respective roles in helping me document the people and places in the Red River Valley. Few things give me more pleasure or satisfaction.

Happy New Year. – Ann

You just never know who [or what!] you are going to meet in rural Minnesota.

I was on my way back to Fargo from an assignment with Minnesota Public Radio News yesterday afternoon. Highway 10 was nearly in reach when I came upon a turtle in the middle of the road. He [or she] was squarely in the center of my path. I swerved a bit, thinking I bet that turtle is going to get hit if he [or she] isn’t careful. I’m was trying to decide where to pull over to photograph said turtle when I came across another turtle. Seriously.

The road isn’t a busy one; however, I had no desire to get hit by a truck just because I want to make a picture of a turtle. That said, I made a picture of the turtle. Isn’t he [or she] nice?

Have a fabulous Labor Day weekend. – Ann

Roughly 1,300 union workers at American Crystal Sugar Co. continue to be locked out of company facilities in North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. During the past 10 days I photographed American Crystal workers in Moorhead, Minn., home to the company’s headquarters, twice for Minnesota Public Radio News.

The first assignment was to document a demonstration on the Veterans Memorial Bridge, which connects Moorhead and Fargo, N.D. Union employees and supporters gathered for an hour or two for several consecutive days during on-going negotiations with American Crystal. The company and the union were working to come to terms on a new contract for workers.

A few days later, union workers overwhelmingly rejected what the company called its final contract offer. American Crystal, in turn, said those workers would be locked out of their jobs the morning of Monday, Aug. 1.

Enter my second assignment. Union workers planned to begin informational picketing outside the sugar beet processing plant in north Moorhead on Monday. I arrived at 6:30 a.m. It was raining and overcast. Dozens of workers were in place for the first couple of hours and as the first batch of replacement workers arrived in vans. Numbers thinned as each hour passed. Regardless, union members remain stationed at the plant’s six gates 24 hours a day. To the best of my knowledge, no new contract negotiations are planned.

I thought it would be interesting to share a selection of photographs from Thursday’s demonstration [featuring handmade signs under sunny skies] and images from the scene Monday outside the plant [featuring printed uniform signage and rain].

MPR News – and other regional media organizations – are continuing to cover this story. It will be interesting to see what comes next. – Ann