Sea View is pleased to present The Crick, a solo exhibition showcasing six years of investigative photography by Jim Mangan (b. 1973, La Grange, IL). Born outside Chicago and having lived in Utah and Colorado for over twenty years before relocating to Los Angeles, Mangan’s photographic practice is a lifelong exploration of the contentious fringes of the American West. Guided by personal connections and a deep attunement to the environment, his photography critically engages the ecological and social impacts of the region’s landscapes, communities, and culture.

Named after the colloquial term for “Short Creek,” a dry river basin between Arizona and Utah, The Crick delves into the fractured community that remained after the imprisonment of Warren Jeffs, the authoritarian leader of the Fundamentalist Mormon Church (FLDS). Across a staggering landscape near Zion National Park, a new generation appears to live unencumbered by time and modern conventions– taming wild mustangs, costuming their own buckskin clothes, and riding together through the rugged vermillion foothills of the Canaan Mountain Wilderness.

Mangan first visited Short Creek in 2014, drawn by the seemingly abandoned, unfinished houses that reflected the staunch isolationist mentality that defined this remote corner of the American West. Shortly after his arrival, he was tailgated out of the area by trucks with tinted windows and warned to leave by those who have come to distrust outsiders, holding steadfast in their commitment to self-governance.

Before the fall of Warren Jeffs and the subsequent disintegration of the FLDS, the church owned all of the houses, oversaw the police force, and imposed strict rules governing daily activities. In this polygamist society, many teenage boys were cast out to reduce the competition for wives, becoming known as “lost boys." They were left to raise themselves in the surrounding barren landscape without familial and financial support.

In 2018, the FLDS lost its non-profit status and Mangan returned to engage with and document an area in transition. Upon meeting Jobee, one of the young men of The Crick, Mangan asked a simple question: “What do you do for fun here?”  

“We dress as mountain men and make our own clothing out of buckskins,” he said. “I can show you. Meet us at Maxwell Park in two hours.” 

These young survivalists did not become “lost boys.” Instead, they navigated their own path amidst the uncertainty and traumas of a now vacated community. This interaction led Mangan into a six-year long expedition, learning from and photographing the young men on horseback, who would have never previously trusted an outsider with a camera. Their expert horsemanship and self-sufficiency fueled their perseverance, while also serving as a way of expressing their rejection of the controlling structures of their past.

The Crick stands as a paradox—isolated yet tightly-knit, an environment both harsh and beautiful. The young men of Short Creek strive to carve out their own meaning in a modern world that once left them behind.