Page 1 – The drive into Manhattan.Page 4 – This is the first portrait we made with Hashim Garrett after our interview.Page 4 – This is the spot where I interviewed Hashim. After the first portrait, and after talking with him about my idea, we decided to try a second version and this is what we settled on as the final portrait. “I want to love those who haven’t shown me love. I want to be kind to those who may not deserve my kindness.”Page 5 – Several years later, as I was passing through the area, I reconnected with Hashim for lunch and we shot this portrait of him with his story in our book.
Page 7 – Below are some samples of the travel photography I have done through the years (as well as some shots of me in the field). You can find more examples of my assignment work at https://www.noltner.com/
Page 7 – The 1966 split level that we called home for 20 years in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Page 7 – Below is a gallery of family portraits. You’ll find the usual stuff, plus a shot of me with the kids, sitting on an alligator in Colorado. That’s a long story.
Page 8 – Below are images from a dental mission to Honduras.
Page 9 – Photographing (and learning how to crew) the Denis Sullivan sailing out of Key West, Florida to Dry Tortugas.
Page 9 – A few portraits of my mom, Eunice NoltnerPage 11 – Rahelio plays flute at Airport Mesa in Sedona, site of a major vortex, before leading Karen on a dream journey. Read the New York Daily News story here.Page 12 – The site at Kent State University where four students were killed on May 4, 1970 when members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of students protesting the Vietnam War. Page 12 – Sitting at Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, at the site where Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, on August 28, 1963.Page 12 – The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Page 22 – Barbara Nordstrom-Loeb at her home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Sometimes when people say peace, it’s sort of masking differences. A lot of stuff gets marginalized if everything’s just all nice-nice. Everybody gets along, but it’s at the sacrifice of the ways that people are different and sometimes do bump up against each other.”Reconnecting with Barbara at a Minneapolis coffee shop.Page 23 – Zafar Siddiqui. “There is always a fear of the unknown. And when people know each other in a deeper way, this fear is removed and it promotes peace.”Reconnecting with Zafar at an awards banquet for the Islamic Resource Group.Page 23 – Imani Jaafar-Mohammad. I’ve had times where I’ve given these two-hour presentations and I’ll have some guy stand up and say, “I think that you are so oppressed.” And I’m like, “You don’t even know me.”Page 23 – Odeh Muhawesh. “Imagine if Moses, Jesus and Mohammad came today and stood in front of us. Moses would ask his followers, ‘What have you done?’ And Jesus would ask his followers, ‘What have you done?’ And Mohammad would ask his followers, ‘What have you done?’ They would all be ashamed of us.”
Page 26 – Below is a gallery of our Christmas tree farm in western Wisconsin and images of Grandmas Grove. That’s my friend / intern Nick proudly displaying his tree selection for the year.
Page 28 – Mark Williams. “I think the history of mankind has been moving ourselves further and further from the center of the universe, and the recognition that we are a smaller and less significant part of the whole than we’d like to think.”Page 30 – John, the tree hugger.Page 33 – Jamal Hashi. “You know, The Bible, The Qur’an, they all give the same message. But people fight about who was the messenger. The core of the message is: achieve peace, give peace and live by peace.”Page 34 – Luyen Phan. “As an international student advisor, my role is to have students from all over the world meet each other, to promote understanding rather than fear and intolerance.”Page 36 – Najm Abed Askori. “Peace is much cheaper than war.”Page 36 – Fred and Judy Baron. “We have learned so much, we have achieved so much in our relatively short human existence. But in the way we relate to each other…person to person and people to people…progress is much more difficult and much slower. That is what we have to strive for.”Page 41 – David A. DeLampert, Jr. “People are so hard on each other, nitpicking and always looking for something wrong and wanting to put someone down. People don’t know how to forgive. We have a problem with forgiving each other so we’re gonna have a problem being at peace with one another.”Reconnecting with David at a Peace House gathering.Page 44 – Melvin Carter, Jr. “I thank God that we’re all different. Man, as exciting of a person as I think I am, I think if everybody in this whole world was just a bunch of [Melvins], we’d be bored to tears.”Reconnecting with Melvin when I photographed his wife Toni Carter, who was the Board Chair for the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners in Saint Paul, Minnesota.Page 45 – Kimberley Lueck. “One doesn’t sit down on a cushion and suddenly attain peace. One sits down on a cushion and encounters the speedy nature of mind and the confused glut of thoughts and reactions. But if I sit down, if I just take that step, I am practicing peace.”
Page 47 – Below is a selection of images from our first gallery exhibit and then the retooled version that we produced as portable display banners. Learn more about our exhibits here.
Page 48 – Our first book, A Peace of My Mind. Learn more about our books here.Page 50 – My dad meeting Ela Gandhi in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.Page 52 – Ela Gandhi. “We all have power…and when we get together, we have more power.”Page 56 – My friend and journalist extraordinaire, Barry Yeoman.Page 58 – Claudia Horwitz. “There are ancestral, cultural, and political legacies that survive and thrive because they’re not interrupted with some kind of searing reflective lens.”Page 58 – A return visit to Barry and Richard’s house in Durham, North Carolina. L to R: Richard, me, Scooter, Nick and Barry.Page 61 – Me with my trumpet. Page 64 – Carl Kenney. “I don’t have to tear you down for the sake of making me better.”Page 67 – Howard Zehr. “I often talk about three core values of restorative justice: respect, responsibility, and relationship.”I was able to reconnect with Howard when one of his exhibits was on display at the Minneapolis Public Library.Page 71 – Tyrone Werts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Although I had the life sentence, it was important to me that I leave a legacy because I had a daughter and I had siblings. And I wanted them to know that although I was in prison, I was a good person.”Page 73 – Arlington Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts.Page 76 – Laura Patey. “If people were willing to be vulnerable and sit with someone else while they are exposing their own vulnerabilities, I think we can then connect on a very deep level.”Page 76 – Kim Book at the beach in Lewes, Delaware, a place she found solace after the loss of her daughter, Nicole. “I surrendered, I forgave, and then I had peace.”Page 76 – Penina Bowman in Atlanta, Georgia. “Having something to believe in helped us survive.”Page 76 – Dan Gallagher at his ranch in Montana, north of Missoula. “We never really had the chance to talk peace with the peace people, because everybody was shouting at one another.”
Page 78 – A short video of John George in Detroit, Michigan.Page 81 – John George in a building to be rehabilitated in Detroit, Michigan. “We all know what the problems are, and there are many. But to continue to focus on the problems and not look for a solution, is a mistake.”A return visit to Motor City Blight Busters and John George.Page 84 – Maham Khan at Harper College in Palatine, Illinois. “We can find peace together, or we can be left desiring.”Page 86 – A Peace of My Mind was awarded the 2013 Jovial Concepts Peace Builder Award in Denver, Colorado.Page 86 – It was my first time on the jumbo screen in downtown Denver.Page 87 – The fateful transmission failure, near Ogallala, Nebraska.Page 87 – The van made it off the interstate, but not much farther.Page 88 – Arches National Park did not disappoint, after a long day’s drive to Moab, Utah.Page 88 – Sunrise at the Park Avenue trailhead in Arches National Park.Page 90 – Evan Haworth.Page 92 – Taylor Bond. “Everybody wants what they can’t have. The grass isn’t always greener.”
Page 93 – Below is a gallery of images from climbing with Taylor Bond outside of Moab, Utah.
Page 97 – Angela Bates in Nicodemus, Kansas. “You may see me as an African American woman and you may react to me initially as an African American woman, but by the time that we finish talking, then you will just know Angela. You will just know my spirit, and it has nothing to do with my color.”Page 100 – A town portrait of the citizens of Nicodemus, Kansas. All are direct descendants of the freed slaves who settled the place.Page 101 – Mother Immanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.Page 102 – Mel Duncan. “We struggle with a shrunken notion of our own ability. We have the ability to bring substantial change and often we don’t own that.”Page 105 – Jeanelle Austin, photographed at the Sojourners Summit for Change. The prompt was, “When was the first time you remember being aware of issues of race in your own life?”
Page 108 – Below is a gallery of portraits of my dad, Donald Noltner.
Page 110 – Deanna Thompson. “Opening yourself up to being cared for and ministered to and prayed for has opened up an understanding of gratitude and a sense that all will be well even if my time here isn’t too much longer.”
Page 114 – Bud Welch at the Oklahoma City Memorial and Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “Before Tim’s execution, I started feeling like I was forgiving him. It’s a process and it takes time. I don’t know how to teach that, but I know that I went through it. I can tell you one thing: Forgiveness doesn’t do a damn thing for the killers. You totally release yourself. That’s where the good comes from.”Page 119 – The Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, and Jordan’s left hand, after tagging the installation with a peace sign.Page 124 – Hassan Ikhzaan Saleem. “This red horse that I work with—Caspian is his name—we work and we get things done and it goes great and I’m so proud of myself. I come back next morning and he’s forgotten everything, or I’ve forgotten everything, and it doesn’t work. People say, ‘aw, you’ve been working with this horse for 6 months, he still sucks.’ And I say well at least I tried and I’ll keep trying and one day that horse will be great and I’ll ride him in the biggest rodeo and I’m going to take him up in high country and pull a steer and it’ll be the most beautiful thing in the world. At least I tried.”Page 130 – Eugene Joe in Shiprock, New Mexico. The location is also known as “Tsé Bit’ a’í”, or rock with wings. “Your creator gave you a special tool in your life. To find that is to learn how to face the reality of life.”Page 132 – Sheila Goldtooth, at Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. “Having a hogan with a dirt floor, no running water, no electricity – that’s being wealthy – because you’re as close to mother earth as you can be.”Page 135 – The watery landscape of southern Louisiana.Page 136 – Kenneth Theriot, a third generation Cajun shrimper, in Chauvin, Louisiana. “I don’t care who come down here, you’re welcome in my house. We always cooking and before I know it, I got a full table and we’ve got to put another table out. It doesn’t matter if it’s people I know or don’t know, it’s just what happens. At one time everybody knew everybody and everybody just take care of everybody. It doesn’t matter if I agree or disagree with the guy, if he needs help, I’m going to help him. It’s just the way it is.”
Page 140 – Below is a gallery of images from shrimping on the Gulf of Mexico with Kenny.
Page 143 – Elaine Baker in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. “I have come to appreciate demonic forces—jealousy, envy, greed. Those forces foster enmity. For me, there are positive forces and there are negative forces. One has to develop a discerning spirit to be able to know when they are rising up in you and where they’re coming from.”Page 147 – The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.Page 151 – Joanne Bland at her home in Selma, Alabama. “If I was a child, we could have a fist fight this morning and be playing by noon. You know, we’re still buddy-buddy. But adults hold onto craziness. We hold onto stupidity. You have a wall that you throw up. I have a wall that I throw up. That wasn’t there when we were kids. We shared what children share: a sense of peace and freedom, to play, to love, to just be happy. What happens to us when we grow up is life. And sometimes it makes us better, but more often than not, it makes us worse. One day we’ll be all right. I’m just tired of waiting for one day. I want it to be now. I want it to be in my lifetime. When we were growing up in the 1960s, I thought by now we’d have that Beloved Community and everything would be peaceful. It has not happened.”A revisit to Selma and a chance encounter with Joanne on the street.Page 152 – Brown Chapel in Selma, Alabama. The commemorative monument misquoted Dr. King’s words from his famous speech and has since been corrected.Page 156 – Cowboy Lyle. Lyle Glass in his beloved Theodore Roosevelt National Park outside Medora, North Dakota. The moment we found Cowboy Lyle outside the pizza parlor, waiting to lower the flag at the end of the day in Medora.
Page 158 – Below is a gallery of the landscape and the wildlife of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Page 160 – My platoon photo during basic training in Quantico, Virginia.Page 160 – That’s 20-year old me, in the middle, the summer of 1987.Page 162 – Dan Gallagher at his ranch, north of Missoula, Montana. “We never really had the chance to talk peace with the peace people, because everybody was shouting at one another.”
Page 167 – Below is a gallery of some of the peace signs we have built across the country
Page 168 – The sign directing visitors to the river site where Emmett Till’s body was found, has been repeatedly shot up.Page 168 – We built a peace sign at the river site where Emmett Till’s body was found after he was brutally lynched.Page 169 – The landscape near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.Page 172 – Trucks displaying confederate flags rallied in downtown in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.Page 174 – Repacking the truck outside Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to make room for Karen and Brenna.
Page 175 – Below is a gallery of the trip to, and the beauty of Holden Village in the Washington Cascades.
Page 176 – Peg Carlson at Holden Village, Washington. “The beauty of art has always been that it doesn’t use words. The visual arts give us another way to communicate without actually having to talk to each other.”Page 177 – Holden Village at dusk.Page 179 – The smokey retreat from Holden Village.
Page 179 – Leaving Holden Village in a fire evacuation.Page 179 – Fireweed is one of the first plants to return to a burned landscape.Page 182 – Ceasar in Riverside, California. “Everyone struggles. They need to get a job, pay for bills. We do as well. We worry about our family. We worry about our future.”Page 184 – Julissa Arce in Hollywood, California. “I believe that it’s in gratitude that you find peace.”Page 187 – Beehive Geyser in Yellowstone National Park.Page 191 – Myron Pourier in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. “We use a very powerful word when we finish praying: Mitakuye Oyasin. Many people say it’s like the word amen, but it’s not. Its English translation is ‘we are all related.’ Through prayer, we’re all related. Through all walks of life, we are related as one in unity.”Page 194 – An exhibit at the Center for Transforming Communities in Memphis, Tennessee.Page 194 – Amy Robinson in Watford City, North Dakota. “The person you’re with shouldn’t make you cry more than they make you smile.”Page 195 – Michael Reid in San Francisco, California. “When you are newly sober, you have this euphoria, because your endorphins start working again. You have a two- to three-month period where you feel great, and then all the problems you put on the shelf for the last ten years start flying at you from every direction. That’s the tough part, because you have to learn how to deal with that. No longer can you hide your problems by sticking a needle in your arm and going to nirvana.”
This is awesome. I appreciate having this extra photos to go with the reading. I’m only a few chapters in, but expect I’ll finish it over the weekend. I’m enjoying it!
I’m so excited to see you tomorrow evening in St Paul. I’ll be picking up my book then. You are amazing! It touched my heart to see Dan’s photo is in your new book.
This is awesome. I appreciate having this extra photos to go with the reading. I’m only a few chapters in, but expect I’ll finish it over the weekend. I’m enjoying it!
Have a beautiful day!
Nila
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John
I’m so excited to see you tomorrow evening in St Paul. I’ll be picking up my book then. You are amazing! It touched my heart to see Dan’s photo is in your new book.
Sending you lots of love ❤️ Jan
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My book came yesterday! Can’t wait to get into it and now this ! More supplemental material.
Sent from my iPhone