A Place in Motion: Revisiting ‘Three Mormon Towns’

Published October 28, 2025 at 3:38 PM MDT

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In 1954, photographers Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange traveled to southern Utah to capture life in three Mormon towns — Gunlock, Toquerville and St. George. We’ll talk with art historian James Swensen about what their images reveal and how these communities have evolved since then.

At the time, America was emerging from World War II, and these once-isolated Mormon towns were beginning to change. Adams and Lange documented what Swensen calls “a place in motion” — communities shifting from their agrarian, church-centered roots into modern American towns. Seventy years later, we’ll talk with Swensen about what’s changed, what’s remained and what their photographs reveal about the evolving identity of the American West.

If you would like to see the images from “Three Mormon Towns,” you can view them here.

GUEST –

James Swensen | Professor of Art History and the history of photography at Brigham Young University. His book is called “In a Rugged Land: Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and the Three Mormon Towns Collaboration, 1953–1954.” [Amazon|Bookshop]

Airdate: Wed., Oct 29, 2025 at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m.