Jordan Layton and Faculty Mentor: Paul Adams, Photography
An Enduring Testament has been one of the greatest projects I’ve had the privilege to work on.
The personal and spiritual development I experienced has changed the way I hope to shape my
future career in the arts.
The ORCA grant helped support a trip to California this past summer. I met with and
photographed the last known speakers of certain Native American languages that are
dangerously close to extinction. I photographed them using the wet plate collodion tintype
process. Some of the languages spoken by those I photographed include: Kawaiisu, North Fork
Mono, and Wukchumni. The grant money went towards tintype materials, gas, and hotel
expenses, which were all much needed. In the end, we were able use these portraits to hold an
amazing exhibition in the B.F. Larsen Gallery on BYU’s campus. This exhibition had a wellattended
opening night, and lasted for two weeks total. It included 11 framed tintypes, as well as
running audio of some of the speakers in their native tongue. The ORCA grant also helped to
fund some of the materials needed for this exhibition. We are still pursuing other opportunities
for publication and exhibition. Attached below are some of the images we were able to create, as
well as an image of the exhibition.
One of the biggest blessings I experienced during this project was meeting the individuals we
photographed. Taking time to get to know these special people and learning about their histories
and stories has had a profound impact on me. We also had the pleasure to gift tintypes and digital
images to the families of those we photographed.
It’s remarkable to know that the tintype created literally captured the light that was reflected off
of whoever or whatever was being photographed at that exact moment in time. One of the
individuals we photographed during this trip is named Lucille, and she is one of the last two
people in the world who fluently speak Kawaiisu, which is the native language belonging to the
Kawaiisu tribe found in the Tehachapi Valley of southern California. During our photo-shoot
there were a couple minutes of down time and she and I were able to share a short but very
meaningful moment together. While she sat and reflected on her ancestry, and where she fits in
the long line of descendants who share her language and culture, she shared with me how
grateful she was for what we were doing and how important and special we made her feel. She
was so thankful to be thought of, to be remembered. Amid shared tears, we were momentarily
connected somewhere deep down as members of the human race and children of God. I realized
in that moment, not only had we literally captured the light reflected off of her in the form of a
photograph, but I also was able to receive light through an interaction with someone I had just
met, and someone with a very different cultural and religious background than myself.
One of the best parts of the mentoring experience was learning from Paul how to confidently and
adequately produce a project as intensive as this. There were many moving parts, and trying to
line-up photo-shoots all over California was no easy feat.
Overall, this has been a wonderful learning experience for me. It has opened my eyes to
possibilities I could not have otherwise seen, and also opened many doors for me. It was a
perfect capstone finish to a wonderful undergraduate experience at BYU. I’m extremely
appreciative for the opportunity this grant has afforded me. It strongly impacted my
undergraduate experience and has helped to shape my perspective on the future of my career.