PHOTOGRAPHY BY COREY MORSE

Turtles, tadpoles, axolotls (immature salamanders, to the uninitiated), red-eared sliders, and spring peepers drew me to the rivers, creeks, and swamps of southeastern Minnesota, where I grew up. I haunted the parks and woods with my buddies. We mail-ordered boa constrictors and caimans from Louisiana, and our parents got used to discovering reptiles and amphibians in our heating ducts and couches and cars... College wasn't as compelling, and I dropped out in my second year, though I am and always have been an eclectic reader and learner. I drifted from job to job and from place to place; I was a bookstore manager in Duluth and a cabinetmaker in Rochester. Finally, I wound up on 128 acres of wooded land in western Wisconsin, where I started a jewelry business with a partner.

Primary location: Minneapolis United States