Photographer Mark Hedengren has traveled the world on assignment, but he says his favorite place to shoot is here in Utah, his own backyard. So when he learned that two of Photography’s greats, Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, came here in the 1950s to shoot “Three Mormon Towns” for Life Magazine he was immediately intrigued and set off to capture his own vision of the same small towns. He has collected his photographs, along with Lange’s and Adams’s originals, in a hardcover book and traveling exhibition, which is at the St. George Museum of Art through January 18, 2014. The book was a finalist for the 2013 15 Bytes Book Award, and Hedengren is the recipient of a 2013 Visual Art Fellowship from Utah Arts & Museums. In this video profile, Hedengren discusses what drives him to create photographs, what it takes to put together a book like Three Mormon Towns, and why he likes to be in control.

Shawn Rossiter

The founder of Artists of Utah and editor of its online magazine, 15 Bytes, Shawn Rossiter has undergraduate degrees in English, French and Italian Literature and studied Comparative Literature in graduate school before pursuing a career in art.