Blog
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CPS Custody Hearing
San Angelo Dan Jessop and his wife Louisa Bradshaw are surrounded by cameras as they leave the Tom Green County Courthouse, Friday, May 23, 2008 after a custody hearing on their newborn son. Jessop said it was only the second time he had seen his child. Friday May 23, 2008.
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Oh My, 3rd Place…
…writing this post over a celebratory pint of Haagen-Dazs…
I’m still in shock but I guess I just won a writing award. A big one. As announced today, my work on my Fly on the Wall blog (which also appears here) tied for third place in the 2008 Best of the West contest:
“The contest is recognized as the West’s most prestigious. It began in 1988 and draws more than 2,000 entries each year from journalists in the 13 states from the Rockies west to Alaska and Hawaii.”
I came in behind a columnist from The Seattle Times, a food writer from Tacoma, and tied with a sportswriter covering the Seattle Mariners. The judge’s comments on my blog were as follows:“Fly on the Wall” offers insight into the work of one photojournalist. The images are amazing, but the stories behind each assignment are even more compelling. The photojournalist gives us a glimpse at his internal struggle to capture the right images while being respectful of his subjects and sensitive to the emotional volatility of some situations. This blog creates greater transparency into a news organization’s visual reporting process while at the same time humanizing the photographer behind the lens. In the blog, he explores how and why photojournalists’ intentions are misconstrued.
To give credit where it is due I need to thank my blog editor Peg McEntee, who is a great mentor and a frequent safety net. But more importantly, none of the posts that made up my winning entry would have been possible if people hadn’t let me into their lives in times of great adversity. To all of you, my sincere thanks. I will never forget the moments we shared. Here are links to the posts that made up my entry: The Fire Trolley Square Shooting – Vanessa Quinn Monika Suburban Polygamy Crandall Canyon Coal Mine Tragedy – Playing to the Camera To see the complete list of results from the 2008 Best of the West Contest, go here. -
At the Gate to the YFZ
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Thursday May 1, 2008.
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YFZ – At the Gate
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. bird flying overhead Today I relieved Scott, who had been camped out at the locked gate to the YFZ ranch. It was pretty quiet, just a few journos here (three, to be exact), killing time. But there’s always something to write home about, right? Here’s what has happened in the past few hours on the lonely road: 1. An older gentleman in a pink shirt with a Big Ten baseball cap drove out to Texas, hoping to convert FLDS members to what he sees as legitimate Christianity. So far, in the first couple of hours he’s told me twice how much better his laptop is than mine. I agreed, and told him to call my boss so that they’ll buy me a new one. 2. Sightseers. A truck pulls up and two guys stare through binoculars at the distant temple and then leaves a minute later. A Forest Service truck (Forest Service) does the same. A photographer quips that the two are using taxpayer gas to drive out and stare at the ranch. A couple pulls up in a luxury SUV and ask, “Any breaking news?” When we tell them there’s nothing going on, they offer beers to the few of us sitting here. A couple guys indulge, clanking their bottles together: “Cheers!”
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. bird flying overhead 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out. atv 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out. atv 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out. atv 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out. 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. trucks with trailers leaving the ranch, rumor was people moving out. 
Eldorado – The front gate at the entrance of the FLDS church’s YFZ Ranch. Temple. Wednesday April 30, 2008. truck on rock pile 
sightseers at the gate to the FLDS church’s YFZ ranch 3. A white or silver truck (above) is parked at the top of a large rock pile out on the ranch, with a good view of the entire area. I’m guessing the people in the truck are watching us. Another black truck occasionally drives up the rock pile to stop and chat, then leaves.
4. A man in pink shorts and his son from Seattle stop by, a minor detour in a roadtrip back home. They eat sandwiches and take a few snaps of themselves at the gate with a point and shoot camera. 5. A fast-moving single-prop plane buzzes over the ranch, and as it goes over us, “USAF” is clearly visible on its blue belly. Some kind of WW2-era fighter. It flies off. 6. A young FLDS man in a truck with a trailer attached drives up to the gate. He unlocks it and drives off. I wave. He waves back. 7. The older guy from item #1 comes back to my car just now carrying his “slick as a whistle” 17-inch laptop to show me just how bright the LED screen is. He leans into my rental car, encouraging me to take my boss to the Apple store and show them the comparison to my “old” screen and his new one, which you can read in direct sunlight. I assure him that any such comparison would probably do little for me getting a new computer. I’d have better luck just dunking my laptop into the bathtub at my hotel room. What will happen next here on County Road 300? I’ll be sure to let you know.
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Scott’s Story
Got this e-mail from my colleague Scott Sommerdorf, who took over the YFZ story when I left to cover the NBA Playoffs: T; Got to go to the ranch a second time last night. After a crazy 5 1/2 hour drive from Dallas with stops in Waxahachie and Abilene to see two of the homes where FLDS kids will be taken, we finally were 20 minutes away from the ranch on our way to see the press conference that was to be held at the gate with some women who were just released from the Coliseum after having their children taken from them. When we get the call that says it has just happened and it’s over. All the way from Dallas to miss this by 20 minutes. AGHHH!!! So we continue on and sit outside the gate for a while while Brooke works the phones trying to get us on. Looks like the answer is no, and my heart sinks – cause this means it’s been pretty much a wasted day with tons of driving and not many pictures to show for it. Then Warren Jeff’s brother drives up, says hi to Brooke, and says, “do we need to get you on the ranch?” He then makes a call, and not long after that, the gate opens and we start to drive in, and Brooke says “we’re in but it’ll probably be no pictures.” Again I’m bummed, but we continue up the road. In the meantime the most beautiful orange light is raking across the place and I can already see in my head the photo of these two anguished women bathed in this light. So we arrive at the house, and meet Rod Parker, who says, “Oh yeah, its ok, y’all can take some pictures.” I look at the sunset and see we are racing this light with maybe 10 more minutes before its down and dark. They were going to have the interview inside the house, but I convince them that this “is the beautiful light of the day” and that can we have the meeting set up on the west side of the house. They are really cooperative and say, sure…. So then out come these women, and they are so sad, and I can only imagine how I would feel if my Zoe or Miles were taken from my arms how I would feel. I immediately have so much respect for them to come out and basically do the press conference over again just for us.I ask them to stand where the light will hit them nicely and then Ruth Edna looks right in the camera with these eyes that look sad, and heartbroken, but also spitting mad. Also right at that moment Velvet, the other mom looks down as she considers talking about her kids. We go on to have a great interview, and make some more photos of them, and hear their experiences inside the Coliseum, but that one frame, and those eyes keep haunting me. I thought you’d like to see it, cause it wasn’t in the paper or on our website. -Scott
Photo by Scott Sommerdorf -
FLDS Raid – The Inside Photojournalist(s)
Countless times while I was in Eldorado covering the raid on the YFZ Ranch, I pictured the events that were taking place out of sight, miles beyond police roadblocks and Texas scrub brush. We could see dozens of police vehicles rushing into the ranch, the police helicopter hovering overhead, and we could hear reports that police were preparing to breach the sect’s holy temple. But we could see nothing. It was frustrating beyond belief. I wished for a way to get onto the ranch and photograph the historic events taking place. Little did I know, the people of the FLDS church were documenting their own history. And now they have put photos and video from the raid on a new site called CaptiveFLDSChildren.org.
Uncredited photos from CaptiveFLDSChildren.org.While they didn’t have my professional-grade equipment or years of experience, the photographers who took these photos had access. And as you can see, access is more important than equipment or eye.
These photographs give us just one side of the story, that of a people who feel their families were unjustly separated by overbearing government agents. Only time will reveal whether that is the way history will remember this story.
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FLDS Raid – The Leaky APC
A new front in the battle for public opinion over the Texas Polygamy Raid opened up last week after FLDS spokesman Rod Parker released photographs of law enforcement taken during the raid by the people of the YFZ ranch. Parker told the Deseret News that officials confiscated most of the photographs and video that FLDS members took of the law enforcement operation.
Photo released by Rod Parker, credit unknown.To counter the images of helmeted, machine gun-carrying officers sitting in an armored vehicle, photos were released by the other side (I assume by members of law enforcement) to The Eldorado Success newspaper. These photographs were obviously intended to show you the lighter side of the raid, showing officers conducting a show-and-tell of the armored vehicle with a group of young FLDS boys. Amazing how these images, both released to shape public opinion, tell such an opposite story of the armored personnel vehicle used in the raid. One side is telling me this was a military assault on a group of unarmed farm folk. The other side is saying that it was nothing like that, more like a carnival with free APC rides. What a shame there wasn’t an objective photographer present to document the events. When the government undertakes such a large operation against a group they accuse of such insidious acts, we deserve a little more transparency.
Photo as it appears at The Eldorado Success, credit unknown. -
YFZ Revisited – April 18, 2008 – Wading In
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YFZ Revisited – April 18, 2008 – The Decision
Originally published on December 15, 2008.At the end of the second day, Judge Barbara Walther made her decision. Over 400 FLDS children would remain in CPS custody. The FLDS began to come out of the Tom Green County Courthouse, and I was looking for reaction. Since they weren’t talking, I was looking for body language to show their emotions. We’ll go in chronological order.
These three ladies were next to come out.
I stayed focused on them as they slowly walked down the steps.
They walked right past me.
And then they were caught in the media pack.
I followed from behind.
For just a little while and then ran back to look for other people.
