Execute a Google search on Michael Wiltbank and you’ll find a great deal of media coverage regarding his Sixteen exhibit in December on the campus of Brigham Young University. The exhibit — in essence, a cleverly integrated counterpoint of aesthetic technique and social science theory experimentation — comprised eight pairs of photographic portraits, each depicting a self-identified gay BYU student and a supportive friend, without any further identification provided.

In planning the project, the senior photography major at BYU had covered his bases — acutely aware of the school’s stance on homosexuality and his respect for sustaining the boundaries of the university’s strict honor code. The project had faculty approval.

A brief firestorm erupted when Wiltbank’s work was removed — a widely perceived act of censorship — and only gradually abated after the school reinstated the exhibit, with university officials acknowledging that there had been a lapse in communication in the appropriate academic channels.

However, a sample of the numerous comments in various online articles and posts shows that only a few individuals cared to take full note of Wiltbank’s elegantly dignified and respectful artistic statement that resonates not just in this exhibit but also in his other fine art photography.

In fact, Wiltbank wore the mantle of this sudden rush of publicity quite well, remaining articulately above the fray, a validating extension of the rationale underlying the exhibit. Once the exhibit was reinstated, Wiltbank thanked the school administration and acknowledged its demonstration of respect for a fresh perspective. And, at a time of significant anti-Mormon backlash, Wiltbank’s poise and art serve to remind that discussions of emotionally charged issues do not have to originate in a contentious vacuum of intolerance.

Wiltbank cued his exhibit with a Howard Winters’ quote from Carol Lynn Pearson’s book ‘No More Goodbye’s Circling the Wagons Around Our Gay Loved Ones’:

“Civilization is the process in which one gradually increases the number of people included in the term ‘we’ or ‘us’ and at the same time decreases those labeled ‘you’ or ‘them’ until that category has no one left in it.”

In addition to not labeling the paired portraits, he used the same framing and lighting in each photo.

A native of Eagar, Arizona, a small town in the northeastern corner of the state, Wiltbank started out as a music major at Eastern Arizona in Thatcher but transferred to BYU in 2005. “But, I knew that I needed to do something for a career that would quench my desire for creativity,” he recalls. “I took a photography class at the college and fell in love with the ability to express myself visually. I transferred to BYU with the intense desire to train as a photographer.”

He adds that his first camera was an old SLR unit purchased at a New Jersey pawn shop. Strangely enough, the Arizona native has never been to the Grand Canyon but he has managed to catch the American Idol fever that captivates a good number of Utahns.

Wiltbank likes to work in a variety of settings, including fashion, landscape, still life, and portraits. And, he dabbles in a bit of sculpture. He counts among his artistic influences Rodney Smith, Matthew Turley, Joshua Jordan, Richard Avedon, Richard Serra, and, most importantly, John Telford, a mentor and colleague at BYU.

His next exhibit will include representative works from a series of fashion images illustrating the most notorious murderers and will have an interactive aspect as he is shooting the images in 3-D stereo photography. The exhibit will be part of the final bachelor of fine arts’ student show for graduating seniors in BYU’s visual arts department which opens April 1 in Gallery 303 on the BYU campus in Provo.

Wiltbank’s work suggests an organically emerging spiritual epiphany not only for himself but also hopefully for those who become engaged with his work. Going back to Sixteen, it’s worth quoting a bit of his artistic statement: “This project for me became a journey of truth and enlightenment. I see a bit of myself in each of these portraits. When looking at these images one may see their friends, their family, or a classmates I admire — the individuals who were brave enough to become the faces of this project. Thank you for your time and honesty.”

Clearly, the narrative in Wiltbank’s emerging corpus of art is culturally rich and open ended — fitting testimony that also compels us to conduct our debates in this state with an eye toward respectfully reconsidering our personal perspectives.