Four hundred and fifty miles east of the Pacific, near what was once the Oregon Trail, there is a small community in Baker County named Halfway. Kerstin and I were unexpectedly befriended there by a person who invited us to stay in her home, a sanctuary amid apple trees, pastures, and cottonwoods. We were reminded, as the days passed, of Edward Thomas’s ideal, of “a garden I need never go beyond.”

Photography is inherently fragmentary, and I find I base my faith on perfect moments.

—R.A., 2005