When Lindsay Linton Buk found her dream of being a professional dancer came with a lifestyle she didn’t like, she refused to give up dreaming. She returned to Powell and found another: photography.

Following her new dreams paid off Friday night, as her new project, Women in Wyoming, debuted as an exhibit at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Hundreds attended a reception to celebrate the opening.

Linton Buk has her mother to thank for a parental push.

While she was searching for a new direction years ago, her mother Carol Linton suggested she enroll in Northwest College’s photo program. Linton Buk already loved the medium, having always been very artful — a dancer with a very creative mind, Carol Linton said.

“All of our presents were photography,” Carol Linton recalled. “She had a real talent.”

However, Linton Buk wasn’t convinced right away.

“I thought, I’ll try it for a semester and if it works out, amazing,” she said; if it didn’t work out, at least she was home.

“I ended up completely falling in love with the program,” Linton Buk said.

She already had a bachelor’s degree in history from Middlebury College, in Vermont. While at NWC she found mixing the two was a good combination. Her first project — a series of portraits called “Been Here for Generations” featuring farm families of Powell — was an immediate hit.

“I think her history degree and her love for storytelling played into the project,” her mother said.

Since then, Linton Buk has been featured in national publications such as American Airlines Way, Cosmopolitan and Cowboys and Indians Magazine. She also opened a studio in Jackson called Linton Productions.

When she left for college on the East Coast, she never thought she’d come back.

“Growing up in Wyoming, I never imagined I’d have a future in my home state,” Linton Buk said. “So when I came back, I felt strongly about showing what is possible and the many pathways to success.”

Her mission was to show Wyoming’s brave, strong, and impactful women — sharing the possibilities she didn’t have when she was growing up. Through photos, text and audio, her “Women in Wyoming” project tells inspiring stories of contemporary Wyoming women through art and media, “celebrating their achievements, power, and learned wisdom.”

Her goal is to urge trailblazing, ambitious, community-minded women and girls to step forward and fulfill their highest ambitions in life. She did so by highlighting the successes of dozens of Wyoming women, including Marilyn Kite (Wyoming’s first female Supreme Court justice and chief justice), Affie Ellis (the state’s first Native American state senator) and even groups like Climb Wyoming (a statewide nonprofit empowering low-income, single mothers by providing free job training, mental health counseling and job placement).

“I learned something from each and every one of them,” Linton Buk said. “I love all of them.”

She recorded audio interviews with her subjects, allowing people to hear the inspirational tales, but her passion is portraits.

“There’s a real conversational element with a portrait. I love working with people one-on-one and learning about their lives,” she said.

Linton Buk decided to shoot the entire project with old school medium format film cameras. She felt film captured the physicality of the Equality State and, while she was taking a risk, she loved the anticipation of waiting for the film to be processed.

“I love getting the film back,” she said. “It’s so beautiful — and it’s fun.”

It was also a practical decision. Knowing she wanted to go large for the prints, medium format was necessary. Digital medium format cameras can cost $40,000 to $50,000, but original film versions, complete with lenses, are available for a fraction of the cost.

Among those in attendance at Friday’s event at the Center of the West were Debby and David Hopkins. The couple met Linton Buk through traditional channels: They needed a portrait and, after some shopping around, decided she would be perfect for their project. After working with Linton Buk, they became fans.

“When I walked into her studio, her [photographs] took my breath away,” said Debby; she’s served as an executive at multiple companies, including CFO at The Boeing Company, general auditor at General Motors and VP of Finance at GM Europe in Zurich.

But it was the time spent with Linton Buk that changed the power couple from clients to supporters of the Women in Wyoming project. Both Hopkinses had been photographed often for the corporate world, but had never met anyone quite like Linton Buk.

“I had never had a photographer who took so much time to getting to know [me] and trying to understand the message I wanted to project,” Debby Hopkins said. “I was blown away by that.”

The Hopkinses became mentors for Linton Buk and have worked with her on the project for almost two years now.

“The process, the precision and the passion she has put into this is stunning,” Debby Hopkins said.

As the moment Linton Buk was called to the podium came, she was understandably nervous.

But she was all smiles looking out at the audience, filled with many of her subjects, former instructors from NWC and friends and family.

“I have had the best adventure getting to know you — having coffee in your living rooms, flying in the back of a Blackhawk helicopter and getting to stay at sheep camp,” Linton Buk said. “[Thank you] to the brave souls who were courageous enough to follow their hearts and keep going. That’s what this is all about — to show the possibilities.”