Editor’s
Note: In Kieth’s review of Witness
of the Light — A Photographic Journey in the Footsteps
of the Prophet Joseph Smith, anytime
you want to go to the page where you can pre- order
your own personal copy of the movie, just click on
any of the Witness
of the Light
titles below and you’ll be taken there. The movie
is at the replication facility now, and copies should
be available for Christmas. You may also click on
the DVD cover icon to your right or at the end of
the article, where there will be one more link.
This year has been a
grand birthday party for the prophet Joseph Smith.
December 23 is the culminating celebration. It will
be 200 years since this remarkable man was born. His
life has changed the world.
It has been a year of
renewed attention to his life and times. It has been
a year of gifts. Members of the Church throughout
the world have honored him with words, music, dance,
and song. He has been celebrated in myriad wards and
stakes. He has been the subject of scholarly explorations,
musical theater, new books, literature, videos and
motion pictures.
The gifts have come from
those who love the prophet of the restoration and
no one loves the prophet Joseph Smith any more than
Scot Proctor. Like so many others in this year of
reflective adoration Scot gave the grandest gift of
all — the gift of self. He brought the passions of
his life, the photographic journey of a lifetime and
his remarkable knowledge of Joseph together in a powerful
new DVD called Witness
of the Light.
My First Impressions
I wrote this note to
Scot and Maurine right after I screened the new film:
I just
finished watching Witness
of the Light. As well as I know this
story I was enthralled from beginning to end. As much
as I thought I knew about this story I was fascinated
by facts, reflections and anecdotes I've never known.
Being hopelessly right brained and in love and spellbound
by images I found myself awash in your marvelous photographs. Having created Legacy
— and made an attempt to re-create portions of the
history with moving pictures — I was yet astounded
by your juxtaposition of history with actual locations
— and stories with artifacts and remnants. I found
it in fact remarkable that so much of it remains to
be seen; undeveloped, rural and much like it must
have been.
Thank you SOOO much for making this such a personal
exploration. Thank you taking me and staying with
me every step of the way. Your soothing voice and
utter confidence in telling the story are irresistible.
Your images of the Sacred Grove, the “Sacred Susquehanna”
(as you call it) and extraordinary landscapes were
all marvelous context for the detailed close ups in
which your candid narrative enable me to see the imprint
and impression of the prophet. You have created yet
one more legacy of your own faith. Witness
of the Light is a unique exploration of
the prophet Joseph that draws much of its power from
your own reverent testimony. That you have walked
in Joseph’s world and come to know him and come to
love him cannot help but strengthen all who are fortunate
enough to go on this journey with you.”
In writing, producing
and directing Legacy for the Church, I thought
I came to know and understand Joseph Smith, the man,
the prophet, his life and times. When I watched Witness
of the Light I was dazzled by how much
I have never known. What a thrill it was.
Review and Getting
to Know Scot
I asked Scot for permission
to “review” the DVD here in the cyber pages of Meridian.
He agreed and Maurine granted me an interview and
a unique glimpse of “the light behind the Witness
of the Light.”
Maurine
recalled,
When
Scot asked me to marry him, he planned it so that
we would be standing between the statues of Joseph
and Hyrum Smith on the temple grounds in Salt Lake
City. I knew, from the beginning, what I was getting.
Call it truth in advertising. Scot says that his
love of Joseph Smith is in his DNA. If he had one
wish for his life, it would be to find the way to
most effectively express his testimony of Joseph Smith
and the restoration.
I
think his wish has come true in this film.
Unlike other
documentary examinations of Joseph Smith, Scot makes
this one very personal. The enthralling DVD is a compilation
from the thousands of photographs Scot has taken over
more than three decades. You have seen Scot’s photo
essays on Meridian so you know already that he has
a marvelous eye. The images selected for Witness
of the Light
capture the places and textures both intimate
and broad. But more than that, the flow of pictures
capture feelings and a “sense of the events” difficult
to describe and wholly remarkable considering they
are still photographs.
Click to Enlarge
Light and texture in the Newel K.
Whitney Store in Kirtland, Ohio.
Let me assure you: Witness
of the Light is not static. It moves and
it is moving. It begins with an up close and personal
conversation with Scot and Maurine. Scot appears
on select locations throughout the DVD. It is like
being there with him. Much of the music is familiar
(from Merrill Jenson) and I found myself augmenting
the experience from my own treasure trove of testimony.
But it is not the images
or music alone that make Witness
of the Light a must-see for everyone wishing
to understand more and know the prophet better. It
is Scot himself who narrates the DVD with a casual
intimacy that puts him on the couch beside you. I
can almost promise you that you will hear things and
feel things about Joseph Smith that you’ve not known
or felt before. He told me that his goal is for everyone,
no exceptions, to come away from this film and experience
having learned at least five new things about Joseph.
I have no doubt his goal will be achieved.
What Brought All This
About?
Maurine told me,
At one
point in his life, Scot was discouraged with the direction
of his career. He fasted and prayed intently. He
was perplexed when the only inspiration he received
after spending nine hours in the temple seemed to
be a recurring question, “What do you want?” Finally,
I took him by the shoulders, faced him squarely and
said, “Well, Scot, what DO you want?” It was a moment
of truth. Something emerged from the inner regions
of his soul and he said, “What I want is to bear testimony
of Joseph Smith and the restoration. But how do you
make a living at that?”
A month later, through
their dear friend, Sheri Dew, Scot and Maurine Proctor
were commissioned to create a book entitled Witness
of the Light — A Photographic Journey in the Footsteps
of the American Prophet, Joseph Smith. It was
for them a boost to Scot’s quest to photograph those
places on the earth that are significant and sacred
to Latter-day Saints. That quest has found them chasing
the sunrise in the Galilee, winding over the Mormon
Pioneer Trail in every season, and trekking deep into
the jungles of Guatemala to photograph candidates
for the city of Zarahemla.
“Each has been a remarkable
journey,” Maurine said reflecting on their marvelous
adventures. “For us, they have been journeys into
our souls and into the legacy of our people.”
Scot’s passion for translating
images into meaning began early. He spent two of
his growing-up years in Turkey. His parents made a
concerted effort to follow the journeys of Paul. The
ancient apostle became a flesh and blood reality for
Scot as he walked where he walked and beheld the things
he surely saw. One poignant afternoon as Scot and
his dad gazed upon a view Paul must have seen in western
Turkey (Asia Minor), he said, “Someday I would like
to do a beautiful, National Geographic-style book
on Joseph Smith and call it, In the Footsteps of
the Prophet Joseph.” Scot recalls that
at that moment he could actually see the cover of
the book in his mind’s eye. He was sixteen years
old.
Scot’s Perspectives
of the Restoration
Scot has always had an
insatiable appetite for learning all that there is
to know about the restoration. Like documenting significant
sites on film, ferreting out new sources of history
has been a passion. He is blessed with a photographic
memory that keeps it all in place. In even casual
conversation Scot can dredge up minute details of
the life and time of Joseph Smith. Listening to Scot’s
easy and confident explanation of these events on
the DVD gave me the uncanny feeling he had actually
lived it.
Scot’s fascinating perspective
is this — that not only Joseph, but also those around
him, his family members and friends, were also called
to this work and that the restoration was carried
out on the shoulders of giants who were disguised
as farmers and craftsmen. He speaks with confidence
about the restoration because he has seen it so vividly
in his mind and heart. When he documents the sacred
sites, he looks where others do not think to look
and finds great treasures there. All of this he shares
with us in this new DVD Witness
of the Light.
Adventures in the
Field
Maurine recalls,
I’ll
never forget the day we were trying to find the cemetery
that was described as being one mile west of the city
of Far West. We knew that perhaps as many as 300
Latter-day Saints were buried there. We went to a
high place, one mile west of the city, but could find
nothing. We began knocking on doors. Could anyone
tell us where the old Mormon cemetery was? Finally,
one man knew. It was across the road and up about
a quarter mile from his home — but it had been ploughed
under so a farmer could plant alfalfa! We went to
the field and walked across it in a sober frame of
mind. Old pieces of broken tombstones were there
among the dirt and weeds. What a poignant moment.
We’ve had many such.
Scot is an artist with
a camera. Done well photography is fine art. Photography
is about seeing. It is about light. Scot sees what
escapes the eyes of others. He sees detail lost to
the untrained observer. He sees the light as it slips
across a landscape casting undulating shadows. He
anticipates that magic moment then captures a nuance
that makes his pictures come to life. He has a gift
for seeing light and for feeling it. Images depicting
the events of the restoration create the feeling of
“being there.” Scot told me, “there is truth in art
and when you see the truth, it speaks to you and you
can feel it.” Witness
of the Light
affirms that vision.
Maurine recalls,
Last
winter Scot went to Norwich, Vermont. He was shooting
a beautiful winter landscape of a home where the Smiths
once lived — the only home of theirs that remains
in the New England area. The temperature was minus
7 degrees. His hands were freezing to the camera but
that didn’t matter. Capturing an image to convey
the reality of the lives he wanted to remember is
everything to him.
Click to Enlarge
Dr. Nathan Smith's Medical Bag that
was very likely at the operation of young Joseph
Smith.
On once occasion Scot
went to Dartmouth Medical School to take pictures
of Dr. Nathan Smith’s medical bag. He had photographed
the old bag once before but remained fascinated by
the probability that this was likely THE BAG that
Dr. Smith brought to the Smith home when he performed
the operation on young Joseph’s leg. His curious fascination
with an old medical bag gave Scot the opportunity
to tell the story of Joseph’s leg operation to the
secretary of the medical school. When he finished
both of them were in tears. The secretary had never
known of the operation or of Joseph Smith’s connection
to Dr. Nathan Smith.
Early Outdoor Studio
Training
Scot’s gift for photography
began in childhood. He lived on 200 acres of woods
in Missouri, and his Dad let him use his camera to
shoot photographs. That love blossomed in him. When
he would go to Nauvoo (which he jokes was only four
days’ walk from his home), he would sometimes take
1,800 pictures or more in a weekend.
Click to Enlarge
Morning light washes over the giant
moonstones of the Nauvoo Temple.
Of his insatiable passion
Scot commented, “Of course, when you are taking a
picture, you are really trying to capture not just
an object, but the way the light strikes an object.
And the mood of the light and selection of the lens
can give it meaning beyond the two dimensions of the
photographic image. The Lord does all the work and
all I have to do is press the shutter.”
Credit Where Credit
is Due
Scot credits the Lord
in all things but most in particular in filming the
remarkable images he has been able to capture. More
than once he has set up under cloudy skies with gray
and dismal light, only to have the sun come bursting
through in the crucial moment. When Scot told me this
story I remembered well the same experience in making
Legacy and Testaments. Scot added,
“We always say that taking pictures is like the scripture
where Nephi tells us, ‘We are saved by grace after
all we can do.’ We can bring the camera, the film
or now the computer card. We can get ourselves to
the place. But only God can paint the picture.”
Scot’s adoration of the
Prophet Joseph Smith and his passion for taking priceless
pictures make Witness
of the Light unique. It is impossible
to watch and not feel his love for both. This movie
ought to be in every Latter-day Saint home.
Stay tuned for a brief
follow-up article in the next couple of days as I
asked Scot to share with Meridian readers some photographic
tips and recommendations.
To pre-order a copy of
Witness of the Light click here.
