Category: gallery-culture

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A Photographer’s Playground

I’ve never outgrown my fascination for toys. A few years back a friend asked me to lead a workshop photographing toys. My first reaction was,”Who’s going to sign up for that?” He suggested I do a Google search and it opened a whole new creative doorway and reason for collecting toys. I discovered there are thousands of people around the world creating very fun photographs with toys.

Toys now accompany my camera on just about every trip. These images are some of my favorites from around South Dakota.

Chad Coppess is the photo editor for South Dakota Magazine

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Big Game, Big Crowd

On Saturday, 19,431 fans — the largest crowd to ever witness a sporting event in North or South Dakota — packed Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings to watch the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits defeat the North Dakota State University Bison 33-16. It was the 115th meeting between the two football teams, an annual contest that has come to be called the Dakota Marker game. The winning team goes home with a trophy that resembles the quartzite markers that surveyor Charles Bates used to mark the border between North and South Dakota in 1891, just two years after they became the 39th and 40th states. Photographer Christian Begeman traveled to Brookings to capture all of the afternoon’s festivities.

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Arcing Across the Big Sioux

Last weekend, crews began installing the first half of Sturgis sculptor Dale Lamphere’s massive Arc of Dreams. The stainless steel sculpture, which is nearly the length of a football field, will consist of two arms curving up from the banks of the Big Sioux River in downtown Sioux Falls. The 18-foot gap in the middle symbolizes the leap of faith people must often take to make their dreams come true. Photos by Paul Schiller.
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Cowboy Up at Interior

There’s a rodeo nearly every weekend during summer in South Dakota, and few are as steeped in tradition as the gathering in Interior. Cowboys have challenged each other’s roping and riding skills there since the early 1920s, when it was among the largest rodeos in the country. Today the Interior rodeo doesn’t draw as well as it once did, but bronc rides and bull rides at the edge of the Badlands are still as entertaining and exciting as ever.

Rapid City photographer Jeremiah M. Murphy made his annual visit to the Interior Frontier Days rodeo on July 4. Here are a few snapshots from the evening’s bronc rides and behind the chutes scenes. If you want to take in a South Dakota rodeo with your own eyes, there are great opportunities this weekend at Boss Cowman Days in Lemmon and the Wall Celebration, or next weekend at the Burke Stampede Rodeo and the Geddes rodeo.

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Return to the Summit

The Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls hosted the Summit League Tournament March 3-6. College basketball fans from throughout the Upper Midwest gathered to see which team from the Summit League, which includes eight schools in seven states, advanced to the NCAA national tournament (South Dakota State University prevailed over the University of South Dakota on both the men’s and women’s side). The tournament has been a boon for Sioux Falls and the state since its arrival 10 years ago. Sioux Falls will host the event through 2022. Christian Begeman from Midco, whose sports network televised the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, roamed the arena for four days and captured these images.

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A Capitol Christmas

Christmas at the Capitol has been a holiday tradition in Pierre since 1981 when volunteers decorated 12 trees. This year, nearly 90 brilliantly-lighted and specially-themed trees fill the rotunda and hallways on three floors. Visitors can peruse the trees from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily through December 26. Musicians from around the state provide entertainment through Friday, Dec. 23. The remaining schedule includes:

Wednesday, Dec. 20

Harrisburg High School Choir, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Julie Willoughby piano students, 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Tiffany Sanderson (piano), 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Ron Smith (piano), Jeff Spect (vocals) and Lori Hall (bells), 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 21

Rapid City Stevens High School Choir and Orchestra, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 22

Andrea Royer (vocals and piano), 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Jared Holzhauer (piano), 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Ron Smith (piano) and Joey Garrett (classical guitar), 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Photos by Bernie Hunhoff

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Stories Beneath the Stones

Six national cemeteries lie within South Dakota’s borders: Black Hills National Cemetery, Fort Meade National Cemetery, Hot Springs National Cemetery, Akicita Owicahe Veterans Cemetery (Rosebud), Akicita Owicahe Lakota Freedom Veterans Cemetery (Pine Ridge) and the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate National Cemetery near Sisseton. Our November/December issue features a story about them and a new initiative through Black Hills State University in Spearfish that seeks to uncover the stories behind the men and women who are buried within these hallowed grounds. Our photographers traveled the state to gather images from each cemetery. Here are a few more that didn’t fit into the magazine.

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Artists of Mobridge

Our September/October issue includes an article on the artists and art collections of Mobridge. The city of 3,500 in Walworth County is famous for fishing and ranching, but it has also wrangled sculptures and paintings by some of the West’s preeminent artists. Bernie Hunhoff traveled to the Missouri River town last summer to explore and take photos — too many to print. Here are some that didn’t make the magazine.