A celebrated photographer has scrapped his plan for a 7-foot mural of teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on the side of a Bismarck, North Dakota, building because the tenant was bombarded with threats of vandalism and boycotts. The Bismarck Tribune says Shane Balkowitsch wasn’t even trying to make a political statement with the mural; he just wanted to mark Thunberg’s visit to the Standing Rock reservation with a larger-than-life version of a photo he’s donated to the Library of Congress. But he said he could not abide the idea that the Brick Oven Bakery might be punished for his work. The bakery’s landlord, Rolf Eggers, had given Balkowitsch permission for the mural. “I didn’t realize the incredible blowback about a picture,” Eggers tells the Tribune. “I just didn’t see that coming.”
