Witness of the Light: A Photographic Journey in the Footsteps of the American Prophet Joseph Smith

This is a book of wonderful pictures of places where events sacred to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints took place. Most of them are pictures of scenes in nature because so much occurred out of doors. The saints moved so often from place to place that many of the revelations and events happened before they could build. Of course, the title has a triple meaning. It is referring to the events in Joseph's life as a testimony to the light of God from the First Vision, to Moroni, to the translation of the Book of Mormon on through to his martyrdom. It is also the witness of these places photographed. They bear testimony of the faith of Joseph and the early Saints in God and the revelations they had received. These places remain and we visit them because they connect us to those who founded our faith in obedience to God's commands to them. It also refers to the author and photographer as a witness of the things he photographed and wrote about. We see the Sacred Grove where Joseph received the First Vision, the Susquehanna River where the Aaronic Priesthood was restored and the first baptisms took place, the quarry where the saints cut stone for the Kirtland Temple, and many others. Some of the original buildings are featured such as the Kirtland Temple, the foundation stones and base of the circular staircase for the Nauvoo Temple, the jail at Carthage where Joseph and Hyrum were martyred, and a few others. The rest of the buildings are part of the restoration projects the Church and the Saints have been undertaking for decades. Since this book was published in 1991 further restoration has taken place. The most obvious is the rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple that has covered the foundation pictured in this book and made the photos of the model of the temple obsolete. The Church has restored many other places that were not in this book such as the smaller home the Smiths lived in at the time of the First Vision and when Moroni first visited Joseph. I am not sure if the dungeon in the Carthage Jail was restored at the time of this book, but it is not shown. Another interesting aspect of this book is that the words illustrate the photos rather than the usual way of providing photos to illustrate the text. The text contains the authors views of the sites and the well known stories of the Restoration. There is no ground breaking research here. However, the pictures are beautiful and represent the sites shown quite well. A pretty good book for viewing with the family and for sparking conversation with nonmember friends.