A Photographer’s Picture of My Sunflower Farm Went Viral. Then a Corporation Stole It, and We Took Them to Court Together

Her name was Brooke Ellis. She was 40, a freelance photographer from Minneapolis, driving across the Plains for a book about American farmland.

She showed me the photo on the back of her camera. Me, from behind, walking into the sunflowers, the sun going down in front of me, the whole field glowing.

“That’s the best photo I’ve ever taken,” she said quietly.

She stayed for supper. Then she drove on toward Montana.

Two weeks later, she called me.

“Anders,” she said. “Are you sitting down? The photo went viral. Thirty million views. Every news site in the country picked it up.”

My cousin in Fargo called me that night and said, “You’re the sunflower guy!” Women from three different states found my farm on a map and sent letters. One sent a marriage proposal. Bjorn ate it.

Brooke licensed the photo to two magazines. It paid her rent for a year. She was thrilled.

Then, in December, she called me again.

This time she was crying.

“They stole it,” she said. “A huge food company. They put my photo on their sunflower oil bottles. In every grocery store in America. They never asked. They never paid.”

“Can they do that?”

“No,” she said. “But they have a thousand lawyers. And I have a camera.”