KURT MARKUS
Tom Russell’s Last Stand
Internationally acclaimed photographer Kurt Markus is as at home on a fashion shoot as he is on location for Vanity Fair, GQ, Rolling Stone, Travel + Leisure, or The New York Times Magazine. He’s shot ad campaigns for Armani, BMW, Sony, and Levi’s and created music videos for the likes of  John Mellencamp. Markus, who moved to Santa Fe in 2014, knew what he was getting into when we sent him to photograph his friend Tom Russell. “Tom’s not much for having his picture taken,” Markus says. “Get in, do the photograph, get out. Tom laughs, often, but not for the camera.” See more of his work at kurtmarkus.com.

JULIA VANDENOEVER
An Apprentice in the Acequia
Formerly a photo editor at Outside, Skiing, and Backpacker magazines, Julia Vandenoever is now a freelance photographer in Boulder, Colorado, who works with publications like Smithsonian, Sunset, and Entrepreneur.  While living in New Mexico during her time at Outside, she came to love the landscape, people, and food—especially Hatch green chile—and finds that things just aren’t the same in Colorado. As she worked on the story of a neophyte farmer, she reconnected with the characters, the landscape, and the history of northern New Mexico. “It was amazing to talk to the new people working the farms, as well as those who have been connected to the land for generations,” she says.

LANDER BURR
An Apprentice in the Acequia
When Massachusetts native Lander Burr moved to New Mexico in 2010, he knew nothing of acequias. Five years later, he settled in the Pojoaque Valley, where he and his wife now raise twin girls and cultivate crops with ditch water. “When we were dating, my wife wrote out a Barry Lopez quote for me,” Burr says. “It talks of the land, and how we must ‘be alert for its openings, for that moment when something sacred reveals itself within the mundane, and you know the land knows you are there.’ I like to think that I’ve glimpsed this land opening before me, and that I’m welcome.” This story marks his debut in New Mexico Magazine.