I had a ongoing desire to do a story on the Old Order Mennonites ever since I arrived in the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 2005. If course as you can imagine, gaining access seemed daunting.

The real break came about a year before I left the paper to move to D.C.

A woman who was writing for one of our weekly publications had been raised Old Order, and while talking one day, I mentioned that I would love to do a story. I was surprised when she said that she thought she might be able to arrange it.

Although she had left the church years ago, she was still friends with many in the community. A family she would visit when growing up was watching her little boy when she was working.

Well she asked, and they said “I guess that would be alright,” but with the understanding that they would not pose for any photos (which is fine of course) and that I would not publish the images in the local paper.

It seems that was the biggest concern.

After I met the family and began to hang out with them, I pretty much was treated like one of the family. I hung around, asked a lot of questions and shot a photo every once in a while. It was interesting because they seemed as curious about me as I was with them. They would call me up whenever there was something interesting going on that they thought I may want to “observe.”

It was a bit more dicey whenever we did anything with the rest of the community, but everyone was nice and welcoming. It seemed that once they saw that I was not sticking a camera in their face every minute or running here and there to change angles to get the best photo, they seemed to relax. It really was a matter of hanging out, communicating, making them feel comfortable with my presence and not forcing the situation.

There were many times I missed a photo that could have been pretty good just because I did not want to draw too much attention to what I was doing. I think the biggest advantage was keeping a conversation going.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. The link to the edit that won the NPPA National Clip award is below:

http://www.nppa.org/competitions/monthly_news_clip_contest/view_natl_winners.php?c=13&d=Dec&t=FMP&p=1st

I will always treasure the time they gave me to intrude into their lives. I hope to keep in touch in the future.

I stumbled upon your site and have already spent about an hour looking through your images, they are so impressive. When I saw the images of this particular family, I was curious to know how you gained access. Could you elaborate on what you told the patriarch what you wanted to do that resulted in him (them) saying yes? Curious to know if they saying yes had more to do with your reasons for photographing or their reasons for wanting (for lack of a better term) to be photographed.

peace,
ralston
http://www.ralstonsmith.com

ps. I was really moved by the image of the older black lady crying in the ‘change you can believe in’ image.