I’d been photographing in North Dakota when I stopped in the small town of Mandan at a little diner. I’d driven through a town where the Dakota Access Pipeline had been in the news due to Native Americans protecting their ancestral lands, but all was quiet. However, in that little diner I saw a gathering of people at one table that didn’t seem to be local.  After a time it became clear that they were journalists. One of them, who was intriguingly dressed as a homeless woman I thought, turned out to be Amy Goodman from Democracy now. I heard her explaining on the phone that she’d be at the courthouse that day as a case was being heard against her for trespassing. She’d been arrested while covering the protests along with several others.

I was present as an interested observer, neither protesting, nor advocating, on behalf of anyone. I…