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A PHOTOGRAPHER HONORS HIS MUSE: a lake good news


Jim Brandenburg has traveled to the ends of the earth as a photographer on assignment for National Geographic. But wherever his camera takes him, Brandenburg’s heart is on the shores of Judd Lake in the Northwoods of Minnesota. “It’s my home, and it’s the center of my universe,” Bran- denburg says. “When I’m traveling, I always think back to Judd Lake and it makes me happy.” Brandenburg and his wife, Judy, have worked for nearly their entire adult lives to piece together the properties sur- rounding Judd Lake into one protected landscape. Late last year, after more than a decade of work with The Trust for Public Land and local partners, the Brandenburgs conserved a seamless complex of hundreds of acres of wildlands adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Brandenburg says he felt driven to protect Judd Lake because it was the place that launched his career as one of America’s most acclaimed nature photographers. He has spent countless hours over the decades waiting, camera in hand, in all seasons, for the right light to shine on its rippling waters, rocky shores, and tumbling waterfalls. He has photographed


bears, otters, ducks, eagles, owls, and even wolves roaming the forests nearby.


“People tend to think of the Midwest as this vast expanse of flat, homogeneous land, with nothing wild left to offer us,” says Brandenburg. “But I think the success I’ve had as a pho- tographer is proof of the richness that’s everywhere in this part of the country … if you know how to look for it.” Judd Lake now enjoys strong protections that will prevent


it from being subdivided or developed. It will forever welcome paddlers and hikers to experience the place in much the same way that Brandenburg has: patiently, quietly, in search of mo- ments of breathtaking natural beauty.


The wild Midwest: it’s out there, if you know where to look.


FIRST LOOK · 23


jim brandenburg


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