Craig J. Law

The photographs in this issue were taken by Craig J. Law, associate pro￾fessor of art, who is teaching photography at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. A major portion of his photography deals with Mormon themes or related subjects. His documentary photographs of “Contemporary Mormon Life” were recently on display at the LDS Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. Chesterfield, Mormon Outpost in Idaho (Bancroft, Idaho: Chesterfield Foundation, Inc., 1982) included his photographic essay of the pioneer settle￾ment. Photographs in this issue are primarily from a current series of western landscapes. He comments, “I photograph subjects which I’ve been around all my life, intending to lead the viewer to a new perception of a common reality. I often compare manmade and natural landscapes – sometimes they are harmonious, sometimes discordant. At times, I am simply thinking how beautiful something is. I’m concerned about the viewer’s experience and use the tools I have in photography to hopefully make visible what it is I’m seeing and thinking. In making these images I sometimes manipulate the tonal scale and alter space per￾ception by using the inherent characteristics of camera vision. Even as words can be used to move people to new understandings, so can photographs.”