Photographer Paul Adams' collection "Power & Faith" depicts leaders of spiritual congregations. Some individuals look familiar, like Chuck Colson, founder of the 5 million-strong Prison Fellowship. Others are strikingly exotic, such as Vaishavi Deva of the Hare Krishna Temple Maya, ministering to 200 families. The similarities between these holy visages are as striking as the differences.

Paul Adams (pauladamsphotography.com/) has been photographing for over 25 years. Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, he grew up backpacking and exploring the nearby coastal ranges, and running rivers above the Arctic Circle in Alaska. In 1966, he was awarded a Masters of Photography. Since then he has taught photography at Utah State University, the Florida Keys and Brigham Young University. He lived in Europe as a Fulbright Scholar and taught photography in northern England.

Paul's work has been displayed nationally and internationally, and his photographs are included in several permanent collections including the Nora Ecles Museum of Fine Art, Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum, Chicago Institute of Art, the Tenba Corporation, and Brigham Young University Art Museum.  Paul has been a professor of photography at BYU since 2002.

"Through most of my professional photographic career I have tried to make beautiful photographs simply for the sake of beauty," said Paul Adams. "Recently though I find myself motivated more by the same challenges the American folk singer Arlo Guthrie faced when he said, 'For me it is not enough to write a song that is good. I want to write a song that is good for something.' The stimulating and exciting challenge for me as a photographic artist is to try and seduce the viewer into thinking as deeply as they feel. As we look into the faces of these Spiritual Leaders I hope to accomplish Aristotle's goal for art when he said, 'The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.'"

In the ArtSpace Loft. This exhibition is sponsored by Elizabeth McCabe.