Back from Short Creek

March 30, 2007

This week’s trip to Short Creek was another thrilling adventure. Some of it I can’t write about until the stories start to hit print, so I apologize for teasing.

One of the biggest obstacles to good coverage of Utah polygamy right now is finding the time. The drive down alone is around five hours (the photo above is looking south through my windshield into Round Valley near Scipio).

It seems like every time we travel down to Short Creek we never have the time to do all of the stories we’re after. And as far as the stories we end up doing, there always seems to be so much more depth we could get into if we had time. There are so many sources we always plan to stop in on for a visit but before we know it, it’s time to leave. (Like the woman who got a call from the Colorado City public school yesterday asking if it was OK for me to photograph her daughter doing a reading assignment in class — sorry we didn’t have time to stop in and say hello.)

For me, the story is also frustrating in how little time is actually spent photographing. There is so much time spent building relationships just through talking with people, having lunch with sources, and interviews. It’s not that I don’t enjoy these many hours. I thoroughly do enjoy it. I could listen for hours, as the entire story fascinates me. And all of this effort has paid off repeatedly, my knowledge of the people bringing a much deeper context to every photograph. I just wish I was photographing more of the things we talk about.

On Wednesday we worked on four separate stories before 3 p.m. and then did a long interview. As interesting as the talk was, I kept wishing I could drop all my responsibilities and put in some serious time photographing these stories in a serious documentary way.

Hopefully that will happen soon. The next time I see the fish on the side of the red mountains, that evocative shape on the vermillion cliffs above town, I want to be focused and relaxed.

This post first appeared here.

Posted by trent | Filed Under On Assignment, Photographs, Polygamy, Trent 

Related Posts

Comments

Got something to say?