A young man attending Brigham Young University did an art project that was censored by the Church officials. What was so horrible about his photography?
These are some of the final images for my fine art photography project. These portraits are of students of BYU who identify themselves as homosexual and a person that supports them. With all of the dissenting views regarding this topic in the past few months I have felt very strongly about this project. The portraits will be shown in pairs. The idea is that there are gay and lesbian individuals not only in the Mormon culture, but also at BYU. I also chose to photograph someone who is a support to this person. This could be a family member or friend. This support person may also identify themselves as homosexual and both people may provide support to each other. I am not telling the viewer who identifies themselves as homosexual, because I hope the viewer will realize that placing a label with the portrait only creates divisions in our society and furthers stereotypes. It is my hope this body of work can be a vehicle for tolerance, support, love and change.
I photographed all the portraits using similar lighting and cropping. I also used a tilt shift lens to achieve selective focus, so that the subjects eyes are the only part of the image in focus. This was purposefully done to force the viewer to look in the eyes of these individuals. I hope that through this project we can realize that all men (and women) are created equal in the eyes of God.
Michael's project is inspiring.
Well, the church took down his photos because they might make people stop and think... and we can't have that... can we?
Andee
December 9, 2008 at 12:17 PM
I think that's a wonderful project. It makes me sick that they would censor it, but I am not surprised.
December 9, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Complete bullshit!
December 10, 2008 at 6:10 PM
I absolutely agree that the censorship of such a beautiful project is absurd, but . . . let me just play devil's advocate for a second.
Everyone knows the atmosphere that exists at BYU and the doctrines under which they operate. I'm assuming that when students choose to go there for their education, they also know this. What I wonder is why, knowing these things about the university, a person who has such a beautiful and open mind would want to subject himself to such a closed-minded, bigoted, and hateful place? Also, why would a student be surprised when a project such as this (as worthwhile as it is) is banned? He had to know going into it, that the subject matter would not be approved of by BYU officials.
So like I said, although I think BYU's action is atrocious, I don't know why people are surprised.
Ok, you can all scream now.
Michelle S.
December 10, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Looks like the guy moved his blog to his professional photography website (Which is AMAZING BTW) because of the BYU honor code.
I am under the impression that he wasn't out of the closet when he first went to BYU, but I could be wrong.
Regardless of the student/honor code info, BYU and the church are both looking like the homophobic assholes that they are. I applaud this guy and his talent! I hope my photos look this good one day!
Andee