This series came about from a classroom assignment on depicting the human body.  After a day of skiing, my uncle and I visited a small natural hot spring in rural Montana. I was immediately interested in the crowd that gravitated to the sulphury waters. I introduced myself and explained my assignment to the “springers.” I then made these photos, which I later developed myself. These are candid frames, and I was attentive to the formal elements in their composition. Most of the springers were friendly and unbothered by being photographed. A few were eager to talk about the medicinal properties of the spring.  And a few more took the attention as a green light to launch into political monologues. The older man, who went by the name Shade, was completely unresponsive, and his friends expressed concern about possible heat stroke.

I realized that, for me, illustrating personality in photographs is much more interesting than strictly representing the human body per se. These photos are some of my favorites because they are filled with character and tell the memorable story of that Montana afternoon.