• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for “Wicked: For Good.”
• Director Jon M. Chu revealed how he got Colman Domingo involved and why he hid Dorothy’s face.
• He also explains how the movie’s final shot pays homage to the iconic poster of the musical.

For more than four years, “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu has lived every waking hour inside the land of Oz. He shot 2024’s critical and box-office success “Wicked” simultaneously with its sequel, “Wicked: For Good,” which cultivates a cinematic conclusion he hopes will live up to the beloved Broadway musical it’s based on.

Crafting that conclusion required a delicate balancing act between adapting Act II of the Broadway musical and adding additional flourishes like new songs and character-building flashbacks to round out the story. “Wicked: For Good” kicks off as Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) sets out on a mission, determined to reveal the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) as a fraud. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) is torn between fame and her friendship with Elphaba. It all leads to the dramatic emergence of Dorothy — or at least, a silhouette of her.

Now that “Wicked: For Good” is in theaters, Chu is ready for spoiler-heavy chat about everything that went into making the smash hit, from guiding Ariana Grande’s career-best performance to how a discovery in rehearsals led to one of the movie’s most dramatic moments.

On making Elphaba a badass, casting Dorothy, and sliding into Colman Domingo’s DMs

Business Insider: You open “Wicked: For Good” with a scene that’s not in the musical: Elphaba saving animals who are building the Yellow Brick Road. What was behind that choice?

Jon M. Chu: I’m a big fan of “Batman,” the Tim Burton version, so I love a cold open. I also wanted to show that the Yellow Brick Road that we think of that’s so iconic actually had to be built by somebody, or some animals. That it was not just this pristine idea. That the building of it was poisoned, and that Elphaba was this badass who, on her own, had this mission to free the animals and expose the truth. 

Some main characters from “The Wizard of Oz” appear this time around, though you only show Dorothy in far shots, silhouettes, or just her feet. How tempting was it to shoot her face? 

We had opportunities to show more, and we shot some things where you could see her face, but our intention, from the beginning, was not to show her face. But was I sure of that choice? We did get options for it, but every time, it was a distraction.

The thing we went by the whole time was something from the stage show. They told us, “It’s about the girls!” Whatever is happening, it’s about the girls. So every time it drew us to, “What does Dorothy think?” we reminded ourselves of that.

Even though the plan was to show a limited amount of Dorothy, was it still a long audition process to cast the role?

Oh, yeah. At the auditions, we would put a sheet up, looking at the performer’s silhouette. Through that, I was looking at how she could walk, but also, could I guide her in that way? The person had to have youthful energy, so we ultimately chose a dancer.

What’s the dancer’s name?

Bethany Weaver.

We also get a cameo from Colman Domingo. How did he come to play the Cowardly Lion?

We have this amazing team of movement actors on set playing the animals, but we always knew we would replace their voices. There was a point this past year where we were cutting the movie together and we needed the voice because it was throwing me off.

I had a bunch of names, but I kept seeing Colman on the award circuit. And I felt he would be really fun. So I DMed him. I don’t even have his phone number. I DMed him on Instagram and said, “Hey Colman, I know we’ve met a couple of times, but there’s this role of the Cowardly Lion, there’s not a lot of lines, it’s not a lot of money, but it could be iconic.” And he was like, “Why the fuck not.” So we did it.

How long did he work on the movie?

He came in for a day, and we had a lot of fun with it. I didn’t know how the character would sound. It was very collaborative. I told him, “I’m not going to tell you anything, let’s just do the scene.” And we did it over and over until we found it.

On staging that Elphaba/Glinda fight for the big screen and his favorite set piece

The scene with Elphaba and Glinda having their spat on the Yellow Brick Road post-tornado is a highlight because it plays with the darker tone of the movie, yet it’s playful enough to indicate they are still friends. How did you develop that sequence?

That is the center of our movie in terms of how difficult and how technical it was for these two women to navigate our tone. I never called the movie darker; I called it deeper. I think the power of the musical isn’t the song and dance razzle-dazzle. I think, if done right, it gives you access inside their minds. You get closer and more intimate in the emotions of the characters. 

So for this moment, though there’s song and dance, we had permission to get closer to them because of the journey we’ve taken with them to this point. So, yes, you get the nod of the tornado, the falling house, Dorothy, you get the fun of that. But if you watch Ariana Grande’s face, watch when she turns, it becomes very personal to her. Nessarose was a person she knew that turned wicked that has passed away, and it might be her fault. But she can’t show that. Then comes in Elphaba, and they are both mourning the loss of Nessarose. And then that transitions from a real fight to jokes.

There was a moment when I thought the fight wouldn’t work in the movie. The jokes of the “farm girl” and the “house falling on you,” those are all jokes in the show, but in the movie they play stronger. And then when the slap happens. We kept it all in because we came to the conclusion that the only way these two can communicate is how they did as kids, which was fighting. So even though it’s a fight, it’s a connecting point for them. 

What’s your favorite set piece in “Wicked: For Good”? One you feel you knocked out of the park.

I think the “For Good” musical number. The restraint that both of the girls earned from both movies to be able to do “For Good,” and not doing the big flashy ending, but make it so intimate. Because ultimately, what the movie is about is giving them the steering wheel, to have them earn the moment. To me, that was one of my proudest moments. We even revisit “Defying Gravity” in the middle of “For Good,” which could have been a no-no — and believe me, the amount of conversations and debates to do that — but because it’s coming from a place of her strength, it allows us to go there.

And then you have to get right the lead-up of Dorothy’s entrance to destroy Elphaba.

I think that scene is the most emotional pivot point of the movie. The shot of Elphaba outside of the closet and Glinda in it, that was not scripted; they did that in rehearsals. I was weeping when I saw them do that. I had to figure out a way to put it in the movie.

So that comes from understanding the characters and their journey, and then us taking a bet it would work. And even when we shot it, the shot of the door between the two of them, I had to take out a wall to get the shot. The production designers were freaking out because if you take out that wall, that set, you can’t shoot anymore. We couldn’t come back to that set. And I was like, screw it, it’s worth it. This is the moment. We had to go into the darkness, not knowing the answer. Just trusting our instincts. 

On tweaking the Wicked Witch’s death scene and hiding the movie’s final shot from Universal

Talk about the POV shot of Glinda inside the closet, seeing Elphaba’s demise. How did you get there?

We storyboarded, but I never stick to it. It’s pretty different from the storyboard. When you have Ariana and Cynthia and they are living in these characters, you have to listen to what the movie is telling you. The show does the Dorothy silhouette for the Elphaba melting, and I thought it was always brilliant. We know the melting, but to see it through a new perspective, to actually enter the closet Glinda is hiding in, it just plays the whole scene differently.

Even the close up of Dorothy’s feet afterward, she looks like a villain. We actually, for a time, had her dance around. She took the broomstick and jumped around and celebrated. It was a little too much.

Was it always the plan to have the last shot of the movie be an homage to the musical’s poster?

Yes. It was always the plan. I was always going to end on the whisper.

Do you know how hard it was to force Universal to never use it in any marketing material? [Laughs.] They even had a poster of it for the first movie, and I was like, “Why are we releasing this poster? We should never acknowledge the whisper. Never. Never.” I wanted it to feel like we didn’t care about it, then suddenly it’s the last shot in “For Good.” So the studio never saw that final shot. I imposed a huge thing: “Do not show this shot!” They wanted it so badly. 

That poster is one of the most brilliant posters ever made. You don’t know what Glinda’s saying, because they never actually do that in the musical. But it’s sort of the key to friendship. That we have these secrets. And the girls got to choose what they are actually saying in the scene. I don’t even know what they said.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

“Wicked: For Good” is in theaters now.

• I’ve visited all 50 states and most major US tourist attractions — some of which I found overrated.
• I wouldn’t plan trips around the Four Corners Monument or Mount Rushmore.
• I’d also recommend avoiding Salem, Massachusetts, in October due to the immense crowds.

I love visiting kitschy or unique tourist landmarks on a road trip or weekend getaway. In fact, after visiting all 50 states solo, I’ve enjoyed my short visits to nearly all the major tourist attractions in the United States.

However, in retrospect, I’ve found some to be overrated and not places I’d plan an entire trip around.

Here are the seven tourist attractions I think are overrated.

The Four Corners Monument doesn’t offer much beyond a photo opportunity.

For geography enthusiasts, the Four Corners Monument — where visitors can stand in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico simultaneously — is likely a bucket-list attraction.

However, although the quick stop makes for a fun photo opportunity, there’s not much more to do in this relatively remote area.

It’s worth visiting this unique attraction once, but I’d much rather stick to the nearby Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, known for its tall sandstone buttes.

In New Orleans, I’d recommend visiting Frenchmen Street over Bourbon Street.

New Orleans is one of my all-time favorite cities, and the iconic French Quarter neighborhood is always a must-see when visiting. Despite that, I don’t recommend a trip to the city just to see Bourbon Street.

While it can be interesting to walk along in the morning or pop in quickly at night, the overwhelming crowds of tourists do not, in my opinion, best represent the city or its culture.

If I want to escape the hustle and bustle of the French Quarter, I prefer the more low-key Frenchmen Street — which some tour guides call a “local’s Bourbon Street.”

Although Frenchmen Street has become more popular over the years, I still don’t find it as overwhelming as Bourbon Street.

South Dakota’s Black Hills region offers more than just Mount Rushmore.

Like most spots on this list, I’d revisit Mount Rushmore if I were in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, but I wouldn’t center an entire trip around it.

The monument is impressive, but in its immediate vicinity, there isn’t much more to do than hike a couple of very short trails.

I’d instead plan a trip around the entire Black Hills Region, with stops at Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park, and Badlands National Park.

The Las Vegas Strip is near the top of my list of overrated destinations.

Although the Las Vegas Strip is a sight unlike any other, its artificiality puts it near the top of my list of overrated tourist destinations.

Despite that, I’ve enjoyed my time on the nearby Fremont Street and in the surrounding natural areas near the city, such as the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

I wouldn’t visit Times Square more than once on a New York City trip.

Similar to the Las Vegas Strip, Times Square is one of the most iconic US landmarks. Although I’d visit if I were nearby, there are so many other spots in New York City that I prefer.

In my opinion, spending time walking around smaller neighborhoods in Manhattan or Brooklyn gives visitors a much better understanding of the local culture.

For those looking for a more touristy experience, I recommend checking out The High Line, which offers great views of Manhattan, or Little Island, which is an artificial island within Hudson River Park.

The line for photos at the Southernmost Point of the US in Key West, Florida, is often extraordinarily long.

Key West, Florida, is one of my favorite cities in the US. Despite all the city has to offer, many visitors first make a beeline for the Southernmost Point.

As the title implies, it’s a simple monument that marks the southernmost point of the US, just 90 miles north of Cuba. Although I visited the point and thought it was a fun photo opportunity, the line for pictures was extraordinarily long.

There are many other places in the area where I’d rather spend that time, with Key West’s exciting culture, museums, history, food, and excellent outdoor-recreation opportunities.

I recommend avoiding Salem, Massachusetts, in October.

I first visited Salem, Massachusetts, on a whim while traveling nearby one October. However, I didn’t realize the city is inundated with visitors throughout the entire month — not just on Halloween.

Infamous for the Salem Witch Trials, the city has become a tourist destination for lovers of everything spooky, especially as Halloween approaches.

Most of my visit was spent finding a parking spot, with the hoards of crowds limiting the appeal for me.

I’d love to visit outside October and recommend only spooky-season fanatics plan a trip during that time frame.

This story was originally published on September 26, 2024, and most recently updated on November 24, 2025.

• Fei-Fei Li, founder of World Labs, immigrated to the US from China when she was 15.
• She ran her family’s dry-cleaning shop for seven years, helping her parents make ends meet.
• She says the experience helps fuel her ambitions to build the future of AI.

Every influential scientist has an origin story — and the “Godmother of AI” is no different.

Fei-Fei Li, a Stanford professor best known for her work on ImageNet, is now the founder of World Labs, a one-year-old AI startup that’s already valued at over $1 billion.

Her start, however, was far more humble.

Li immigrated to the United States from China at the age of 15 and helped her parents run a dry-cleaning business in Parsippany, New Jersey, to make ends meet.

“We were not financially very well off at all. My parents were doing cashier jobs and I was doing Chinese restaurant jobs,” she told Bloomberg in a Q&A. “My family and I decided to run a little dry cleaner shop to make some money to survive.”

Li said she likes to joke that she was the “CEO.” She ran the shop for seven years, from when she was 18 until the middle of her graduate studies.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Li attended Princeton University for college, keeping her close to her parents’ shop. Later, while pursuing her Ph.D. at Caltech in California, she continued to run the business remotely.

“I was the one who spoke English. So I took all the customer phone calls, I dealt with the billing, the inspections, all the business,” she said.

The experience, she said, taught her the value of resilience — a principle that continues to guide her career.

“As a scientist, you have to be resilient because science is a non-linear journey. Nobody has all the solutions. You have to go through such a challenge to find an answer. And as an immigrant, you learn to be resilient,” she said.

At World Labs, Li has big ambitions. She is working on building world models. These are AI models that leverage spatial intelligence, which Li says is “the ability for AI to understand, perceive, reason and interact [with the world]. It comes from a continuation of visual intelligence.”

A growing number of AI experts believe that world models are what will propel the AI revolution into its next phase. Some believe large-language models, which are trained on, as the name suggests, lanaguage, and which the leading products are now based, are limited.

Li said ImageNet, a comprehensive training dataset of visual information, was a precursor to world models.

At the core of Li’s research is the idea that visual information, a passive way of understanding the world, is a crucial foundation for real-world action, which remains one of the ultimate goals of some top AI builders, like Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun, who recently announced he would step down to launch his own world model startup.

The through-line between Li’s research and her immigrant story is the same.

“I was always a curious kid, and then my curiosity had an outlet, which was science — and that really grounded me,” she told Bloomberg. “I wasn’t curious about nightclubs or other things. I was an avid lover of science.”

• Amanda Yochum, 44, has worked at childcare company Bright Horizons for nearly 23 years.
• She oversees the company’s 24-hour day care centers in Indiana and Kentucky.
• The night shift children stay up all night to match their parents’ schedules.

This story is based on a conversation with Amanda Yochum, 44, of Haubstadt, Indiana. She oversees Bright Horizons’ 24-hour day care in Indiana and Kentucky. The account has been edited for length and clarity.

If you’ve never played football or dodgeball outside at 3 a.m. with preschoolers — or watched the sunrise with them — you’re missing out.

I know this because I’m a regional manager at childcare company Bright Horizons, overseeing the 24-hour day care centers we run in Princeton, Indiana, and Georgetown, Kentucky, which are located at the Toyota manufacturing plants in both areas.

The business of making cars runs 24/7, and so do our day care centers. When you’re a parent on night shift — and need to sleep during the day — you need your child to be on that schedule, too. Especially if both you and your partner are working night shift, or you’re a single parent, which is often the case at these plants, which are some of the largest employers in both regions.

So while some people on a more conventional schedule might baulk at the idea of 3-year-olds staying up playing happily all night long, that’s just what we do here.

Staying up all night is part of the routine

The night shift runs from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., so when the plant workers drop their children off, we’ll have some that are still half asleep on their parents’ shoulders. However, they typically run excited to see their friends. We’ll have activities that are already planned out on the table to engage them as they transition into the classroom. Once they’re settled in, then they have some free play and can explore our different learning environments.

When these plants were established in 1996 and 1986, respectively, there were few quality childcare centers available, so Toyota recognized the need to provide this service for its employees.

That’s why our nighttime day care service is in such high demand. At our Princeton childcare center, 164 children are enrolled during the day, while 44 are enrolled at night. In Georgetown, about 159 kids are enrolled in the day program, and 32 are enrolled at night. The center is also open on Saturdays. Around 25 are booked in the day and around 20 at night.

Keeping our nighttime routine as close as possible to our daytime routine is a strong principle that we have implemented throughout the years. It’s that equity piece. We don’t want our children or our families to feel that they are missing out because of the shift that they are on. For example, if it’s Grandparents Day during the day, we will replicate that at night. We often say that the only difference is that we swap sunscreen for bug spray.

It’s so fun to be outside with the kids in the middle of the night

The rest of the night runs like this: once they have settled in, they will eat breakfast. Then they will play outside, and come back in for some activities and projects. We follow a curriculum, but we also discuss with the children what they are interested in learning.

They typically have lunch around 10:30 p.m. Then, after lunch, just like daytime children, some will take a nap of up to two hours at this point. For those children who don’t nap, they’ll transition into rest time and quiet activities. We offer “inner explorer,” our mindfulness program that helps calm the mind and body, promoting relaxation.

After this, it will be snack time, and we will go outside again. They return for some additional curriculum time, and then, toward the end of the shift, they’ll have some extra learning time. It will then be time to go home.

It’s actually a lot of fun being outside with the children in the middle of the night. We are in the middle of a cornfield, so we have high fencing and stadium lighting. There is nature outside to contend with, but we know how to keep safe. The children like to holler at the deer, and we often get mice wandering in. We might also see the occasional coyote, and the children love it. The lights are so bright you often forget what time of night it is.

Kids can come starting at 7 weeks up to before they start kindergarten

Many children start with us at around 7 weeks old and stay with us until they begin kindergarten. Typically, night shift families have it made in this regard – their babies sleep the best and they don’t struggle.

We are often asked if we plan to open a kindergarten program, but there are no plans at the moment. We do everything we can to support them in their transition into kindergarten and school, where they will have to adhere to more conventional hours. We’ll lengthen naptime, so by the time they’re graduating, they’ll be sleeping for an extended period at night.

Our families will also tend to take off the week before school starts, to get into that new groove and routine. Parents aren’t guaranteed to be moved to the day shift when their children start kindergarten, so they may have to drop their children off at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s or arrange for someone to come to their house.

In Kentucky, though, we do have a school-age program. The children have their own beds, dressers, locker rooms, and showers, and they will go to bed by 9:30 p.m. while their parents work the night shift.

Our facilities are crucial to working parents

We don’t tend to have issues with our children not being rested enough — they have learned to follow their parents’ schedules, and they start young enough that it’s easy for them to adapt. Sometimes, life admin needs to be taken care of during the day, and we might not get a full night’s sleep, but that happens to all of us at times.

However, there is a doctor’s office, pharmacy, and store on-site, and we also have health professionals visit us to support the children. For example, twice a year a local hospital will send in occupational, speech, developmental, social and emotional therapists, and they will come in and do developmental screenings. They will bill the health insurance providers directly at no cost to the families.

We also have optometrists and dentists come on-site. Then we have professional family photographers come too. These events occur both during the day and night, benefiting everyone.

Even though I am a regional manager now, I still will go in and work nights. I just drink an extra Diet Coke. I also have an almost 19-year-old autistic son who has never slept well anyway, so he’s been conditioning me my entire adult life to do this kind of work.

It’s a big misconception that we just keep the kids up all night. Yes, we do that. But that work-life balance is critical for parents who work hard. That’s why we pioneered this style of childcare years ago — and it works for everyone.

• For my 13th birthday, my mom gave me a handmade recipe book with entries from friends and family.
• The recipe book features handwritten recipes, notes, and photos that I still cherish today.
• Once my kids are older, I plan to make a similar book for each of them to enjoy.

For my 13th birthday, my mom compiled a recipe book, filled with recipes and notes from family and friends.

While I didn’t immediately jump up to make all of the recipes, and there are still some that I haven’t touched (I doubt I’ll ever make a salmon loaf), the recipe book has become my go-to for meal planning and baking.

Julia Child’s cookbook rests prominently on my shelf, and while I daydream of making clafloutis, I’m much more likely to make my mom’s spice cookies or my grandma’s apple crisp from my homemade book.

Notes and photos make the recipes more personal

Some friends and family included little notes on the recipes themselves, like noting if a recipe was a holiday favorite, listing modifications, or mentioning if a specific family member always requested a certain food.

These additions have become even more cherished over the years, as some of these family members are no longer with us. Seeing their handwriting and recipes evokes memories of breaking bread together, cooking together, and even receiving handwritten cards from them.

My mom also included some of the letters she received over the years, along with the recipes, photos, and stickers. There are even a few recipes where she photocopied the originals from generations past. I never knew my paternal grandparents, and having their handwritten recipes helps forge a small connection to them.

The recipes created bonding moments

Some of the recipes, such as my dad’s chili or holiday cookies, were ones I had helped make over the years.

Others, like my aunt’s mother’s tortillas, were not. My aunt often talked about not liking to cook, but she coached me through making the recipe, which included instructions such as “one small bowl of flour.” Thankfully, she had an idea of how much this was!

She often told stories of how her mother would make the tortillas fresh for my cousin as an after-school snack, and how he’d roll them up into a buttered tortilla “burrito.” These are the types of stories and connections that help make great food.

Some of the recipes reflect my great-great-grandparents’ country of origin, Hungary, or my aunt’s grandparents’ homeland in Mexico. Others are recipes that have become holiday “must-haves,” such as birthday cake, Thanksgiving tamales, and Christmas cookies, as well as recipes to warm us in the colder weather.

The book was a way to bond with loved ones, near and far

Living in a military community, we have friends and family spread across the miles, so having these recipes helped me feel closer to those who were far away.

For my birthday party, my mom requested that everyone bring a recipe as part of my gift. This provided unique scrapbook-style additions, with recipes written in loopy cursive by tweens using colorful gel pens.

My mom copied the recipes for my party guests, and one of them told me she still has all the recipes. She, like me, hasn’t made all of them, but kept them because it felt special. It was something different, but fun.

I hope to someday make similar recipe books for my children

Having these recipes easily accessible is amazing, as I don’t have to hunt through multiple recipe books or files to find them. Once in a blue moon, over the years, I’ve found family recipes missing from the book and added them in.

I’ve also added some new favorites over the years, such as sourdough crackers and the ooey gooey butter bars we had at a friend’s wedding.

The binding is starting to show some wear, just like a beloved teddy bear wearing at the seams. I hope to someday create similar books for my children — a blend of my family’s and my husband’s family’s recipes, as well as recipes I’ve discovered, and new recipes that I’ll request from our friends. Food and handmade items are both precious gifts of love, and combining the two has given me a priceless heirloom.

• Matika Wilbur photographed members of every federally recognized Native American tribe.
• She named the series Project 562 for the number of recognized tribes at the time.
• She published a book of her photos titled “Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America.”

Photographer Matika Wilbur was on assignment in South America when her grandmother appeared to her in a dream and told her to go capture her own people.

Wilbur, who is Native American, listened.

She embarked on a yearslong project photographing members of every federally recognized Native tribe in North America. In 2023, she published her collection of photos in a book titled “Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America.”

Wilbur spoke with Business Insider about her project, her photos, and the importance of agency in Native American representation.

Take a look at Wilbur’s powerful portraits.

Photographer Matika Wilbur went on a mission to photograph members of every federally recognized Native tribe in North America.

Wilbur herself is Swinomish and Tulalip.

She drove hundreds of thousands of miles and photographed members of different Native American tribes for Project 562.

When Wilbur began her project in 2012, there were 562 federally recognized Native American tribes. Now, there are 574. 

The project grew from a photo series to a documentary to a full-blown archive of Native people, their communities, and their stories.

“We’re always redrafting the language to describe this project,” Wilbur told Business Insider.

Wilbur photographed her subjects on black-and-white film using a method called the Zone System.

The Zone System creates more dynamic range in the images.

She’s drawn to peer portraiture with simple landscape backdrops.

“I figured that that was sort of irresponsible when I started this project, to travel all over the country and not show the landscape,” Wilbur said.

She let her subjects choose where and how they’d like to be photographed, giving them agency over how they’d be represented.

“Sometimes I’ll be in the Grand Canyon and I’d rather take somebody’s picture at Havasupai Falls because it’s magnificent and there’s this incredible blue-green water coming out of the ground … and they want to be photographed on their front porch because they love where they live,” she said. “I’ll do what they want to do because people should be represented in a way that is important to them, especially in Indian Country.”

“We’ve been photographed so many times by non-Indians and we’ve had our stories told so many times by people outside our community, and they get the story wrong,” Wilbur said.

In the above portrait, Wilbur photographed three members of the Tulalip tribe: Darkfeather, Bibiana, and Eckos Ancheta.

“We aim to correct that narrative through honest individual agency and storytelling,” she said.

Dine’ (Navajo Nation) member Jaclyn Roessel posed for one of Wilbur’s portraits.

Wilbur asked people questions about themselves and their lives as she took their pictures.

Their conversations touched on family, love, heartbreak, moments that shaped them, and their hopes for the future.

She also asked about their Native American identities.

“I find that people have really interesting things to say when you ask them what it means to be whatever their tribe is, and then when you ask them what it means to be an ‘Indian,'” she said. “I’m fascinated by that.”

Sometimes her subjects wore traditional Native clothing, while others wore everyday outfits.

Ailee Fregoso of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe showed off her colorful fringed shawl.

Wilbur published her work in a book called “Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America.”

The book, published in 2023, became a New York Times bestseller.

What began as a photo series has become an archive rich with history, culture, language, and resilience.

Wilbur also cohosts the podcast All My Relations, in which she and Adrienne Keene — a professor who is also Native American — discuss their relationships to land, ancestors, and other Native peoples.

Wilbur values the connections she’s made throughout the creative process.

“I didn’t know that strangers can become family relatively quickly,” she said. “It’s such a whirlwind of a journey.”

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in 2016. It was updated in 2025.