I went back and listened/read the article about polygamy in America. I must admit I was very surprised by this article for many reasons. I suppose it is because when I started reading it I was thinking as a member of the LDS church and as a result I already formed opinions about people who have branched from the original LDS church. However, I quickly discovered that if I wanted to gain anything from this article, I had to at least try to separate myself from my pre-concieved ideas and try to be open-minded.
I found that the photographer's ability to tell a story from an outside perspective to be very good. I felt that she was able to try to look at everything subjectively and was able to give general information about a group of people that the majority don't really know about or understand. However, I found it interesting that even though she and her partner went to the same places and spoke with the same people, they came up with different theories. At one point in the interview the interviewer asked her if she thought the polygamist colony was a matriarchal society like her partner wrote about in his article. She said that she did not think that it was as matriarchal as he did. This goes to show that even though two people can be witnessing the same events and experiencing the same things, they perseive it differently. Although we try to be as subjective as possible, it is impossible not to form opinions. So even though she essentially tried to give a "real" look into polygamist colonies, we are still seeing this information through her eyes and through her bias. Although I think that it's impossible to be completely free of bias, I do think that researchers must try to do it in order to provide the best data possible.
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