Most of us are hardwired not to stand
up but to be nice and polite,” she notes.
It wasn’t just why people took action
that drove her curiosity but also how
they overcame the innate challenges of
doing so.
And, she adds, the “point of the book
is not so much about the individual
causes but the individual decisions to
take some action.”
Her hopes for the book? “To get
people talking,” Ottesen says. “To show
what it takes to move forward—push-
ing for policy changes or even opening a
dialogue.” And to inspire others as much
as Ottesen’s subjects have inspired her.
“I may not agree with the person, but I
understand their choice. And we’re not
doing enough of that.”The Challenges
Going into this project, Ottesen already
knew some of the challenges she would
face. Her first book, Great Americans,
published in 2003, was a “snapshot
of the country in a moment of time.”
Through research, she found people in
all 50 states who bore the same names asAmerican icons. As she traveled around
the country, she met, interviewed and
photographed Eleanor Roosevelt, a full-
blooded Apache; Greta Garbo, born in
Italy, a divorced cancer researcher liv-
ing in Kentucky, and many more. She
asked each of them what it meant to
be an American and found that “the
way they said things was so incredible...
you could not make up this group, and
that’s what you hope for, a great mix of
people.” And that book and experience
gave her a solid background to continue
creating these wonderful stories.
But, she cautions, “Any time you
move a big project into action, it’s all on
you. Without your pushing, it doesn’t
get done.” From conception to find-
ing a publisher, you’re on your own,
she explains. Perhaps the trickiest part
of bringing Activist: Portraits of Cour-
age to life was getting in touch with
the people she wanted to interview
and photograph.
To make connections, “you keep your
eyes and ears open. Sometimes you send
an email, and occasionally someone
responds.” She compares the process
to tacking a sailboat—going back and
forth, working your way further and
further along. It may not be a straight
path, but eventually, you get where you
want to be.
Some of it is serendipity, but it's also
networking and reaching out, which
helps make the necessary connections.
“It helped that I was doing profiles for
the Washington Post Magazine,” Ottesen
says. In fact, a handful of the profiles in
the book were originally published in the
Washington Post Magazine and were, as
she puts it, “a calling card.” One of them
even ran as the cover story in the sum-
mer of 2017, which later helped her pres-
ent the idea for the book to publishers.
Still, even when connections are made,
there are issues to contend with. Ottesen
had been trying to meet with Angela
Davis for two years, and even when the
interview was approved, something hap-
pened and the meeting fell through.
“She’s someone I had an enormous
personal interest in for a long time. So
I sent one last Hail Mary email rightSister Megan Rice
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