Margeurite Dreissen for the NYT.
A couple weeks ago I got an email from an editor at the NYT with “got a Mormon story for you” in the subject line. After working on this project for a little while now, I’m starting to get the reputation as “the guy who photographs Mormons” and I am perfectly fine with that. Assignments that line up with my personal work are my absolute favorite. They offer me access to people and places I may have overlooked and help push the project forward. This particular story was about black Mormons and the changing political and cultural landscape within the LDS church. It is a very well done article and was on the front page of the website for a while yesterday.
I had a great time photographing and talking (mostly talking) with Margeurite. She is a standford educated Lawyer who now teaches at BYU. She lives in a suburb of Provo and she totally blew my mind when it came to her political beliefs. She was very liberal and incredibly outspoken despite living in the most conservative part of the state. We had a very candid conversation about what it was like to live in what is potentially the whitest place in the entire U.S. I definitely suggest reading the article. It is very interesting.
I shot some film on this assignment but unfortunately i’m too swamped right now to get my scan on.
