Earlier this year, I had the privilege of creating portraits of one of the United Methodist Church’s renowned leaders, Rev Leonard Fairley, for his nomination for Bishop. I was introduced to this by a Reverend friend at the Edenton United Methodist Church, Rev. Lisa Yebuah.
I met Rev. Fairley at the Soapstone United Methodist Church in Raleigh. We talked about his background as we started the shoot at Soapstone United Methodist Church. We then drove to Downtown Raleigh for the second part of the session at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church. A native of Laurinburg, North Carolina, he was the third of nine children born into poverty. He served as a pastor at the Sanford Circuit, St. Peter’s United Methodist Church in Hamlet, Soapstone United Methodist Church in Raleigh, and Saint Francis United Methodist in Cary and ended becoming a superintendent. Frankly, I was quite nervous about the shoot considering that he was at the time the Rockingham District superintendent. However, his graciousness grace and humility nullified my anxiety. 🙂 I loved his humility & wisdom as we talked throughout the session! He definitely made my job much easier.
By God’s grace, last month, on July 13th, he won the election and was voted a United Methodist bishop by delegates at the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church at Lake Junaluska in North Carolina. I am super elated that I had the privilege of being part of his process. Here are some of the photos from the session and few pages from the nomination brochure using some of the Portraits that we both created (hey nothing gets created without the cooperation of the subject :)). And big THANKS to my friend, Rev. Lisa (aka Lisa :)) for assisting me with the light for some of the outdoor shots and helping to bring out some gems from Rev Fairley!!
Here are 2 pages from the nomination brochure sent to me by the Designer:
