‘Leaving the Church’: Jonathan Lovett Captures Stories from Utah’s Youth

Though not originally from Utah, photographer Jonathan Lovett (he/they) shines an insightful light on the fresh wounds plaguing the state’s youth: The fear and fallout of leaving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise known as Mormonism.

Lovett was raised in Los Angeles as a Christian Scientist by two mothers, one of whom died from breast cancer when he was three years old. He said she decided against medical intervention in alignment with her faith. “I was very angry at faith for a long time,” he says.

Lovett began taking photos almost a decade ago, starting at the age of 16. Now 25, they’ve recognized faith as one of the “thematic recurrences” throughout their work — even accidentally.

Early photographs on Polaroids, film and even a pinhole camera featured dream-like visions. When Lovett eventually bought his first medium-format camera with a YoungArts grant, his work began to focus on more specific themes, such as queer becoming and belonging as expressed in their project titled off the beaten path, there’s a flowering.

While getting their undergraduate degree in New York City at Parsons School of Design for photography, they began researching topics more rooted in academic theory. As they worked on their thesis project, they focused on “queer ecological theory and nature as kind of a space of queer becoming.”

“I started to realize what the work was about. It was about me. It was about my upbringing, deconstructing what it was.”

Then, Lovett found himself depressed and living in Salt Lake City. He was drawn to the Great Salt Lake, took photographs on Antelope Island and began a body of work titled same sun, different saints.

“I started to realize what the work was about. It was about me. It was about my upbringing, deconstructing what it was,” they say. “Also about the place that I was in. It was about Utah. It was about the Great Salt Lake in ecological collapse.”

Lovett recognized the familiar sound of stepping away from the faith of your adolescence whispered throughout the valley. He felt that the silent strength of peers and perfect strangers deserved to have a voice. “I was raised very religious,” he says. “So it was all kind of familiar — maybe too familiar — with some of the feelings I felt living in Utah.”

“I was raised very religious. So it was all kind of familiar — maybe too familiar — with some of the feelings I felt living in Utah.”

They were inspired when their friend Victoria Hills shared her experience leaving the LDS religion. Lovett began creating a collection of documentary-style images following young ex-Mormons’ journeys and ultimate feelings towards the faith.

That project, titled leaving the church, was born and created in tandem with “same sun, different saints” — a project of self-discovery through his own experiences untangling religious ideals. “Those two things were always kind of in conversation with each other,” he says.

leaving the church captures 13 individual experiences of living in and leaving the Church. Each participant chose a place that held special meaning to them for their portraits. This helped create an environment to safely share their stories about leaving a religion dominant among friends and family. Lovett says those pictured were “incredibly strong and have gone through this massive shift faith-wise, often family-wise, often friend-wise, community wise … People leave that behind and start new.”

“There’s just this place in the country where religious fundamentalism and extremism is at play … and I just don’t think people recognize it or care.”

Lovett describes how this “glossed-over” experience is becoming more common in the religion’s capitol. But they say those feelings toward the LDS faith were “night and day between different people.” Some swore it off for good, while others considered rejoining someday. They felt it was an important story to share with those who reside inside and outside Utah’s borders.

“Not being from there, people don’t really know the extent that the Church has a hold on the state government, politics, culture,” Lovett says. “There’s just this place in the country where basically religious fundamentalism and extremism is at play … and I just don’t think people recognize it or care.”

Working on the two Utah projects helped Lovett gain a better understanding of himself, his faith and his work as an artist. “I think it altered my practice forever,” he says, explaining that the work created in Utah has been his favorite so far. But that could change as they continue their experience at Rutgers University in New Jersey, creating and teaching art to be seen by audiences that transcend church and state.

See more of Lovett’s work on Instagram at @j.lovettt or on their website, jonathanlovettimages.com.

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