I recently photographed people and places impacted by the closure of New Frontier Bank in Greeley, Colo. The bank was forced into receivership after what the FDIC describes as “unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations of law and regulations.”   Many eastern Colorado farms and business were impacted by the closing of the bank and are now unable to transfer their loans to other institutions. The fallout threatens commercial and agricultural businesses that have historically relied on the bank for short-term credit.  The essay appears in the June 16th issue of the Journal and a nice edit of the work also appears on the Photo Journal blog.

The story turned out to be a little more nuanced than fat cat bankers getting ahead of themselves.  There aren’t clear villains and victims, rather a sense of loss that is common to both sides of the cashbox.  The bank was rooted in a very humble beginning during which the founder, Larry Seastrom (pictured above), sold ten dollar shares to friends and neighbors in order to raise capital.  New Frontier  purchased a doublewide trailer as its first place of business and, over more than a decade, it grew into a much more formidable building.   The business began to shape its image around its involvement and commitment to the local community.  The short version of the bank’s fall is somewhat of a perfect storm of overextended lending, undercapitalized business, and a sharp decline in the price of milk that wreaked havoc on many of the bank’s large agricultural loans.  Many of the businesses who received money the bank are now having difficulty refinancing their loans through other institutions.  They face the possibility of losing their collateral later this year when the FDIC packages and sells off New Frontier’s loans.

The assignment came as a welcome challenge and a bit of a crash course in getting my head around the nuance of the relationship between the abstract banking world and the real-life fallout experienced by New Frontier’s customers.  This is the second piece that I’ve worked on with Wall Street Journal writer Stephanie Simon and a real treat to work with a writer able to tackle the complexities of the story.

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