YFZ Revisited – April 6, 2008 – Media and Diversity

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Trent Nelson

There were a lot more cameras and reporters at today’s press conference at Eldorado High School. Marleigh Meisner of Texas CPS confirmed a total of 159 children and 60 adults removed from the FLDS YFZ Ranch to this point.

We drive over by the Civic Center where a crew working for Oprah is interviewing Shannon Price of the Diversity Foundation, which helps teens leaving the FLDS sect (above), and Carolyn Jessop, the bestselling author and ex-FLDS member (below). Jessop is the ex-wife of Merrill Jessop, the overseer of the YFZ Ranch.

They say they’ve been brought in by Texas authorities to help provide cultural understanding and to facilitate communication with the FLDS. It seems unlikely that Jessop and Price would receive any welcome from the FLDS here in Texas, considering their positions against Warren Jeffs’ fundamentalist church.

I photograph Shannon’s badge to make sure I spell her name right. I send in a photo with her name correct, but something else wrong. I heard Shannon say that she had family roots in the Short Creek community and in my caption I mistakenly called her a former FLDS member.

Carolyn expressed hope in the possibility of seeing some of the children (from sister-wives) that she left behind when she took her own eight children and left the community.

I don’t know if that meeting ever occurred, though it seems doubtful Jessop would receive any welcome under these conditions.

There seemed to be this prevailing thought among the people involved in the raid, especially CPS. That is that once the women were safely off the ranch and out of the control of the FLDS men, they would be happy to leave the group for the outside world. As far as we know, not one person caught up in the raid has left the group. They all went back.

YFZ Revisited – April 6, 2008 – Welcome to Fort Concho

Posted on November 17, 2008 by Trent Nelson

The buses arrive at Fort Concho in San Angelo. There are maybe four other photographers, mainly from TV stations. I shoot several frames as the first bus goes by, into a secure area that we’re not allowed into. This composite is made of those:

You can’t see much into the tinted windows, but I notice this hand on one of the other buses:

This is the scene we are faced with, a very long shot to an old military building. We can see people way down there, CPS workers. We’re not even allowed up to the fence. This is with an 80mm lens, so in reality it’s further than it looks in this photo.

With my super telephoto 600mm lens, I photograph an FLDS woman and her boy who are escorted to a port-a-potty outside. I’ve laid it out like a comic book panel so you can follow the timeline and see how the security was handled:

Soon I photograph three FLDS women being taken from the main building and across to another building out of sight.

If you know who they are, you can start to figure out what may have been happening here.

Finally, here’s an overview of Fort Concho, from our main position across the field

YFZ Revisited – April 6, 2008 Busload

Posted on November 16, 2008 by Trent Nelson

As you have now figured out, these YFZ revisited posts are not about posting a portfolio, or the best photographs from the events of last April. These posts are mostly about exposition through putting out a lot of photographs. It’s a loose edit, and there are reasons for that.

We got to town and saw several buses parked at the county seat. Since the civic center was too barricaded for photographs, we followed three buses to the First Baptist Church.

Looking at various photos of the food being loaded, it looks a little better than the first night. In this and other photos I see broccoli, bananas, oranges, various juices, oatmeal, and only one box of potato chips.

The first people begin to come out to get on the bus.

I try to photograph everyone. Here are some of them.

At one point they walk out a few people behind two sheets. Looking at the entire set of photographs now, these are the people who were behind the sheet:

The sheet stayed out near the entrance to the buses, blocking the shot for photographers on the other side.

At left in this one (below) is Eldorado Mayor John Nikolauk:

As the buses drove off we got in front of them for this shot…

…and then followed them down the highway…

…with no idea where they were headed.

YFZ Revisited – April 5, 2008 Temple Breached

Posted on November 15, 2008 by Trent Nelson

We are at the police roadblock on county road 300. It’s late afternoon. They still won’t let us anywhere near the ranch. We are miles from even the gate, let alone the action. Before there had been just two troopers manning this roadblock. Now there are more. And they are multiplying. Every minute it seems another patrol car pulls up and parks. The officers get out and start chatting, telling jokes, and whatever else men do.

Why the build-up, I wonder. Someone says it’s just a shift change. I won’t pay it much attention then.

An ambulance goes up toward the YFZ Ranch, still sealed off with a large police presence searching the place. Now a fire engine goes up, too. I’m not paying any of this much attention, snapping a frame or two just in case. But then I overhear a voice on the police radio that says something like, “You’re going to enter the temple?” Next a bunch of the troopers get in their cars and speed up the road toward the ranch.

I shoot the frame above just as it’s almost too late to show the line of cars going up the road. Only later will I realize that this build-up of force wasn’t a shift change. It was part of the operation to breach the FLDS temple.

We go back up to the parking lot by the Catholic Church, which is the best vantage point for the temple. And the photo above makes it look a lot closer than it is. That photo was only possible with a super telephoto 600mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter on it. For the photo-geeks, the total millimeters of lens for this shot (including 1.3 sensor crop): 1,092mm. Crazy. That temple is miles away.

Now a helicopter starts buzzing around. The sun is down and the light is disappearing.

We’re hearing that the helicopter is for any emergency medical transport that might be necessary in the stand-off over the search of the temple. A local reporter hints that the temple might be rigged with explosives that will be set off once the police go in. We will find out later that instead of preparing for a murderous martyrdom, the FLDS men are ringing the temple singing hymns and crying as the first fundamentalist mormon temple is, in their view, destroyed.

Now it is black out and the helicopter is still buzzing around. We hear it and see its flashing red lights. The temple is lit up, a brilliant white edifice way out in the black night. After tonight the temple will not be lit. Not after the police climb the walls and breach the doors. Not after outsiders enter the sect’s holiest building and search it for signs of child abuse. From now on the temple will now remain dark at night. The light has been extinguished.

YFZ Revisited – April 5, 2008 Eldorado

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Trent Nelson

This photo of FLDS women and children playing on the playground behind the First Baptist Church in Eldorado looks somewhat plain today, but it was a coup on April 5th. It was our second exclusive catch in as many days. We knew they were back there and circled the block spotting all the police cruisers. I thought Brooke was going to circle the block for the photo so I was surprised when she pulled to a stop. I fired seven frames in under a second with a 300mm before the police bore down on us in quick fashion.

The officer who stopped us had a loose tongue. He told us that someone had stopped a vehicle driven by Warren Jeffs, Jr., earlier in the day. Everywhere we went for the rest of the day, we looked for a vehicle matching the description the cop gave us.

Later we met Jimmy and Katdaddy, two real Texas characters. My caption from that day reads, Katdaddy says he’s glad that Texas Child Protective Services has removed children from the FLDS YFZ “Yearning for Zion” Ranch just outside of town, after allegations of child abuse.

YFZ Revisited – April 5, 2008 Press Conference

Posted on November 14, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Just so you get the idea of what it looked like, this is the first CPS press conference. It was held at the Eldorado High School and helmed by CPS spokesperson Marleigh Meisner. At this point the media on-site was a very small group. Meisner told us that 183 people had been removed from the YFZ Ranch, 137 of them children. I remember that seemed like a big number, though it would soon be eclipsed.

YFZ Revisited – April 5, 2008 – Bus to Civic Center

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Trent Nelson

I’m finally making progress editing my photographs from the April raid on the FLDS YFZ Ranch near Eldorado, Texas. Looking through the photos for the first time since I shot them, I’m noticing things that I hadn’t before. I’ll post more of those kinds of things later. This post is all about scrambling, trying to find something worthwhile and coming up short.

We rise early and head to a roadblock manned by Texas troopers. After I photograph the roadblock I start photographing other things that catch my eye: an old mattress, a sun-bleached skull, and a kid stuck trying to get through a fence. Omens? Signs of what’s going on? Or just the way this part of Texas looks?

We wait five hours for something to happen and finally a bus comes out from the ranch. I shoot photos of the bus, and there’s at least one FLDS woman/girl on board.

We, along with several other media vehicles, follow the police-escorted bus to the local civic center, one of the temporary shelters set up by CPS. The civic center is the more secure location, barricaded off from traffic. We all park across the highway from the civic center and photograph the scene.

CPS workers line up in what I’m guessing was an attempt to shield any FLDS from our cameras. I’m shooting with a 600mm lens and a 1.4 teleconverter, right through some kind of fence. The shot is horrible but so far it’s all we’ve got for today so we are all trying to get something out of it.

We see a pair of young FLDS women, at least one with a baby. The girl in the pink dress is loaded into the white car and driven off. For the rest of the photos, click through this gallery:

YFZ Revisited – April 4, 2008

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Just minutes after I photographed the food I noticed that a bus had pulled up down the street. Even in the dark I could see the heads of children on the bus.

It was really dark, but I had a fast 50/1.4 lens that would let me shoot without flash. I quickly snapped the photo above as a test frame to check my exposure. The women and children walked to the First Baptist Church and I clicked off twenty quick frames in the dark.

That photo ended up being used all over the place. Looking through all twenty frames, I see that some of the children noticed me and others appeared not to. Here are more frames, some of which have never been published before:

I wrote this about the technical aspect of shooting the photo on the blog back in April:

A few notes about the photo, which I feel captures an historic moment in the FLDS story. First, there had to be some sensitivity in the taking of the photograph. Luckily, I brought along a 50/1.4 lens so that I wouldn’t need to use flash. Popping a flash at children who were just taken from their parents and homes would not have been compassionate. Like a good backpacker, I wanted to leave a minimal footprint. So I shot available light, something like 1/30th at f1.4 at ISO 800. Maybe when I’m actually awake I’ll actually tone and sharpen it for you, but it’s been a long day.

Back then I also wrote a bit about how the volunteers (and knowing more now, CPS) didn’t want me there and definitely didn’t want any photographs taken. But we were standing on a public sidewalk so there was little they could do.

Immediately after shooting this sequence I walked across the street to the car and began sending photos back to the office, just ahead of deadline. Then I went back to look for more photo possibilities. You can see how the doors to this room of the church have vertical slit windows. I could see the occasional FLDS woman through these windows but before I got a shot off a short-haired woman with light-colored pants (she’s in the last two photos above) approached me with several other locals. One was the mayor of Eldorado. They were very angry at my presence.

The mayor asked who I was and what I was doing there. I told him. The woman asked if I had taken any photos. I said yes. Around this point an officer led me off to the side away from the group and told me that while he knew I had every right to photograph from the sidewalk, these locals were really pissed off that I was there and if I stayed much longer, he wouldn’t be able to guarantee my safety.

We evaluated the situation and decided to leave, knowing we had the shot (which would run across the entire width of the next day’s front page) and knowing we would be back early in the morning. I wrote this back then about us leaving:

Some of the volunteers at the church clearly didn’t want me taking photographs. They were good people looking out for the FLDS, who are very private people. I can understand their feelings. But this is an important story. I try to work with the same compassion they were feeling for the children. Once we had the photo, we left. In the morning we’ll go back and hopefully it will be more obvious that while we’re serious journalists, we’re not “THE MEDIA.”

My perception has changed substantially from what I wrote then. While there were privacy expectations (as there would be in any child-protective action), the story of the YFZ Raid was heavily media-managed from the start. In some cases they were following official policy and/or state law, but Texas officials would limit access to the photography of this story nearly every step of the way.

Revisiting the YFZ Raid

Posted on November 5, 2008 by Trent Nelson

For months I have been putting off the task of editing my photos from Texas’ raid on the FLDS Yearning For Zion (YFZ) ranch in Eldorado. I just couldn’t bring myself to look again. To this day, over 100 gigabytes of my photographs from four months of work have not had a proper edit. I backed them up several times for safekeeping and let them sit.

The prospect of going through these photographs is daunting on so many levels. For one, I feel a huge responsibility to history. But the real reason I’d been avoiding the edit is that covering the raid took a huge toll on me emotionally. And this next sentence isn’t any opinion on whether the raid was right or wrong, or whether polygamy is right or wrong, or whether the FLDS are right or wrong:

The raid on the YFZ Ranch, the removal of 460+ children and all that came after was very painful for all involved. Whatever side you’re on (if you think the children were rightfully removed due to abuse or if you think they were wrongfully removed due to persecution), this was a tragic event to witness. Seeing families broken up, for justified or unjustified reasons, has shaken me. It was tough.

I opened up the first folder of images this morning. They were pictures from the first day, just a few dozen photographs taken late the night we arrived in Eldorado. It can’t be that bad, I thought, only thirty-two images to look through.

I was wrong.

I only got halfway through before I couldn’t go any further. Once I saw that iconic photograph of the young FLDS women and children walking through the dark, carrying bundles and babies toward the First Baptist Church, the emotions swelled up and I could not continue. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

The first eleven photos seem mundane but they have turned out to be quite interesting now that we know what happened. They show two volunteers (who, I should note, did not want to be photographed) unloading groceries and diapers for the FLDS children being brought to the church-turned-shelter.

That first night, I didn’t realize that FLDS children from YFZ didn’t eat the food that modern American eats: processed foods, potato chips, etc. They eat almost a completely organic, mostly vegetarian diet.

Only days later would stories emerge of the children getting sick in shelters, their bodies having to adjust from their all-natural diets to the modern food provided by the state in the shelters.

Texas officials claimed they would provide a healthier environment for the children than what they had at home on the YFZ Ranch, and then handed out bags of Doritos.

Hildale From Outer Space

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Have I said this before? That I would be a rich man if only I’d started a wall-building company in Short Creek five years ago?

As camera crews from all over the world invaded the twin towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona chasing the story of polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs and his FLDS followers, the people of the community found ways to preserve their privacy. Like building walls around their homes.

Photo from Google Maps

I think this desire for privacy from prying eyes is a natural thing, whether or not you’re living an illegal lifestyle. The walls have always fascinated me and I’ve spent a lot of time photographing them.

There are amazing photographs that could be made in the FLDS community. But for all the time I’ve spent photographing, those amazing photos always seem to be just out of reach. There are a number of reasons for that. One is the distance. It’s been difficult for me to travel that far south for any length of time this year.

I was in Short Creek last month for just a single day. It felt good to get the rental car coated in red, rusty dust as I drove around town. But the trip was too short.

This morning I’m at home in my slippers cruising the streets of Short Creek, thanks to technology. I just noticed that Google Maps has recently upgraded their satellite coverage of Hildale. You can now zoom in with extreme clarity and count the number of trampolines in backyards behind the privacy walls. They haven’t upgraded the coverage of Colorado City yet so on the Arizona side things get really fuzzy, as this screenshot shows:

Photo from Google Maps

I’m still not seeing any people outside, but once I’ve got the kids’ lunches made and sent them off to school this morning I’ll pour myself a bowl of Lucky Charms and take another quick trip through Hildale.

The Bat Boy Controversy

Posted on October 4, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Above: My cameras in the St. George courtroom during the trial of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs, 2007.

There was a lot of comment on Brooke’s polygamy blog about the Weekly World News’ Bat Boy courtroom photo from the other night. One of my responses was so long I figured I’d post it here:

Remember, I’m not out to justify or demonize the doctored photo that appeared in the Weekly World News. It’s not my work so I don’t have to stand up for it. But it’s obvious, from your comments here, how much it means to some of you out there.

I talked to the photographer who took the photo last night. He works for an agency whose photos go all over the world and he had no knowledge that his photo had been doctored. I can’t really quote him further, but the matter is being looked into.

I’ll tell you why the photo caught my interest. I sat in that courtroom for multiple court hearings and the two week trial of Warren Jeffs. I sat in the same chair that photo was taken from for many hours, looking over at the defense table while covering a story of huge historical importance to the FLDS faith and the world of the principle. That scene with Warren is burned into my personal memory.

As a young boy I would occasionally pick up the Weekly World News at the grocery checkout and see what crazy headlines they had each week. It was always something ridiculous and amusing, like the story of the cannibal food critic who rated the people he had eaten based on their nationalities, or reports of Elvis being spotted alive. As FTTC commented, juvenile might be the right word for this type of comedy. It’s truly absurd stuff, for sure.

I remember picking up the 1992 issue where they “reported” the discovery of Bat Boy in a West Virginia cave. Many Bat Boy articles followed in later editions.

So I stumbled on a series of Bat Boy articles published by the Weekly World News the other night. I clicked on a headline about Bat Boy suing Batman in a paternity fight (absurd, right?). The story came up and I saw the photo of the Warren Jeffs courtroom. What is Wally Bugden doing in a photo for a Bat Boy story? I thought. And then I noticed that they had put Bat Boy’s head onto a person that the FLDS call a prophet of God.

At that moment, two elements of my life that couldn’t be further apart came together in a very strange way. And that’s how I wrote it up in my blog post.

Go back and re-read my post. I never offered an opinion. I never said it was funny. I called the story about Bat Boy suing Batman “comic fiction.” (Batman is in comic books.)

I do find it an absurd coincidence that they used that photograph from that specific courtroom. I don’t personally think those wacky tabloid editors in Florida picked that photo just to offend the FLDS, even though it does offend them. Maybe I’m wrong and they did it on purpose.

Your opinions are all valid and I find them interesting to follow. I just wanted to give you more information on how this all started.

Picking the (Strawberries) Photo

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Trent Nelson

201 photographs I made in the FLDS house in Westcliffe, Colorado, as several women sliced and bagged strawberries.

Someone sent me a question about editing, asking, “How do you know that ‘this is the photo‘??? Just wondering if it’s a great talent, or does it just look good or what?”

There are two steps to finding the great photo: Shooting and Editing.

1. Shooting. When I’m photographing a situation like this, I’m looking for the three things that make up a great documentary photograph.

A. Dramatic and storytelling elements (the content). Obviously there will be few dramatic moments when the subject is food preparation, but there might be small moments where people interact or show a little emotion (a laugh, a smile, etc.)

Storytelling elements in this case that would be things like the portraits of FLDS leader Warren Jeffs on the wall and the unique hairstyles and dress of the women in the photo above. Another storytelling element present is the communal effort, so showing a lot of people in the photograph illustrates that.

B. Graphic design (the art).

This photograph has strong lines, coupled with the moment of the boys grabbing a snack.

Good graphic design to me is clean and functional, drawing the viewer’s eye across the image and to the points you want to emphasize without including a lot of distracting elements. In this situation the better photographs have a nice design and structure to them, and that’s what will separate the good from the bad.

C. Good technique (great lighting, perfect exposure and focus).

In today’s modern fluorescent world, good light indoors is hard to come by. So when I noticed the light coming through the window on this young woman’s face, I worked it for a while shooting a lot of loose and tight frames. It’s certainly not amazing light, but it’s a small detail that makes it a better photograph.

I know that these three examples are very subtle examples of the concepts I’m talking about. But maybe that will help you to look closely at what makes them stand out. That’s how I look at photographs. I look at all of the small details that make up the photograph. And the best photographs are strong in all three categories (content, art, and technique).

2. Editing. Now the shoot is over and I have to go through the photographs to find what I like. As you can see in the big image up top, when photographing I’ll work an angle for quite a while as I try to make the best photograph I can from a promising situation. Some work and some don’t. But it’s only in the editing phase that you find out for sure.

In the editing workflow, I’ll take the photos from any given angle and look at them all, eliminating the weaker ones until I am down to the strongest (the selects). After pulling selects the entire take I’ll look at them all and whittle that set down to a final set, which hopefully are the best of the shoot.

In my own workflow, I like to edit quickly, acting on instinct. Too much pondering gets me stuck and takes me away from the way that photographs are absorbed by readers (instantly, for the most part). But to be honest, sometimes I can’t decide between two photographs. That’s where a second opinion becomes very valuable. My colleagues and photo editors have always been a big help in that regard.

Westcliffe FLDS – The Details

Posted on August 8, 2008 by Trent Nelson

“I’ll introduce you to some mothers who have absolutely no objection to you taking their picture.”

You have never seen an FLDS scarecrow, have you?

Now You Know

Posted on August 6, 2008 by Trent Nelson

I was in Westcliffe, Colorado, where we had been invited to spend a day in a home the FLDS are using to care for a handful of revered grandmothers.

But the story was much bigger than that. The residents of Westcliffe, upon discovering who their new neighbors were, began to investigate the FLDS. And as anyone who has caught that bug and wanted to learn about polygamy and the FLDS knows, the first things you find to educate yourself with are often from the loudest voices. You end up reading a lot of outrageous stories that are very difficult to verify.

There are a lot of posts I could (and hopefully will) write about the Westcliffe story. We met a lot of fascinating people on all sides of the issue.

Probably the most bizarre thing I could tell you about photographing this story is that for the first time in history the FLDS were fine with pictures and the outsiders were not.

We were given nearly complete access by the FLDS. I had great access to the people, the house and the property. On the other hand, a majority of the “outsiders” we interviewed for the story refused to be photographed. What an alternate reality that is. (Thanks to those who did allow pictures and to the one who had good reason for remaining anonymous.)

To the concerned people of Westcliffe who took the time to tell us their concerns, as well as the FLDS who invited us into their home (you were obviously all exhausted by the time we left late that night), thank you.

More soon…Must catch breath…

Grand Jury – YFZ – The Rest

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Wow. A long, draining day. We sat outside the courthouse waiting for something to happen for about ten hours. It was hot and miserable, even with shade and the blowing wind. Now that my molten Twix bar has been reconstituted in the hotel room fridge, I’ll attempt to recount the day. Mostly in photos. Stephanie says that I must have gotten good stuff, even if I’m too drained to consider the possibility.

Grand Jury – YFZ – First Pic

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Trent Nelson

Eldorado, TX – FLDS member Janet Jeffs arrives with an unidentified attorney at the Schleicher County Courthouse, where a grand jury reconvened to consider charges stemming from the raid on the YFZ Ranch.

I just realized something funny. A real switch in how this story is covered. We’ve gotten to the point where we know the names of the FLDS members but not the names of the attorneys. That’s a reversal from days past, when I knew who the attorneys were but not the people.

Here is the news from this morning. We pulled up to see the yellow tape around the courthouse pushed further back from before, and the sprinklers spraying the grassy area we wanted to set up. But it wasn’t all that bad, they have moved the grand jury into an adjacent building, apparently because it has air conditioning and we found a better angle for the new situation.

No air conditioning out on the grass, however. We’re sitting at a picnic table in the shade.

At one point Willie Jessop came over to talk to Brooke and all of the other reporters and photographers ran over and started asking him questions like, “Where is Merril Jessop?” It’s the kind of question that journalists ask, but it’s not like Willie would answer. He wasn’t out to make a statement, but promised one later. He just cocked his head and kind of laughed the probing questions off. It seems obvious that he’s been subpoenaed to testify. Why else would he be allowed beyond the yellow tape?

One other thing from this morning. While we were all distracted with Willie, the Texas Attorney General pulled up and entered the building. By the time we saw him and sprinted over to get the pic, it was too late. Only the guy from the Eldorado Success got the photo.

Tomorrow's Grand Jury – YFZ

Posted on July 21, 2008 by Trent Nelson

So tomorrow is part two of the grand jury show at the Schleicher County Courthouse. We are all wondering what will happen, though the general consensus is that we will see some arrests made in cases involving underage marriages performed at the FLDS Church’s YFZ Ranch.

I’ll try to blog from my folding camping chair on the courthouse grounds tomorrow, but it will depend on how busy things get.

I know that people on both sides of the issue must be nervous about tomorrow’s outcome. As a neutral observer, the only thing I need to hope for is shade and a cool breeze. Whatever happens, I plan to be there.

Blackbuck and Limestone – YFZ

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Trent Nelson

A Texas blackbuck skipping through a sewage area under construction on the YFZ ranch.

There was a reporter early on in the YFZ raid story who would ask the best questions. And I mean “best” as in most entertaining. I think CPS caught on to him after the first two press conferences so he took to asking other reporters to ask his creative questions.

One thing he asked was whether or not any tunnels had been discovered on the YFZ ranch. Because, he said, “These people are known to dig tunnels.” He also asked whether cadaver dogs had searched the property.

Residents of the YFZ ranch laughed about these questions when we asked them about it because the YFZ sits on solid limestone, as you can see in the photo above. The large gardens at the YFZ sit three or four feet above ground level, where the plants are nestled in top soil was brought in and lies atop the native limestone.

So whatever crimes may have happened at the YFZ, I’m betting they took place above ground.

I haven’t seen that reporter in Texas since very early on, which is very mysterious. I wonder where he is. Somebody had better send some search dogs into the tunnels to find him. I’m getting worried.

The Rainbow – YFZ

Posted on July 6, 2008 by Trent Nelson

$A rack of pastel colored dresses in the sewing shop at the FLDS church\\'s YFZ ranch outside of Eldorado, Texas.$

When I lined up this frame of pastel dresses on a rack in the sewing shop at the YFZ ranch, one of our guides said, “Taking pictures of the rainbow?”

Turnabout – YFZ

Posted on June 27, 2008 by Trent Nelson

About three weeks ago I took this photo of a nine-year-old FLDS boy at the YFZ ranch who had just been reunited with his family after spending two months in state custody. (You can read about that here.)

Yesterday we were out at the ranch and I saw him again. I didn’t photograph him this time, because if I bug him too much he says I’ll turn into a cockroach. But as we were leaving he picked up my camera and we turned the tables on each other, as he took this photograph of me:

Trent Nelson | Photojournalist

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