WENDY HURST PORTRAIT

Orem, Utah | Portraits from the Colonial Heritage Festival 2025. It’s not cosplay. It’s commitment. I brought my portrait studio to a place where no one owns a phone—but somehow they all know how to churn butter. Or at least, where the demonstration tent is located. No one broke character. Not even when I Vogue’d them. I didn’t mean to make it look like a 1776 fashion editorial.  Well, just a little. I tracked them down from camp to camp and asked for a photograph in the shade.  One reenactor offered me their “smoldering ye olde stare.” Another adjusted their bonnet like they were being interviewed for the cover of “Wool Weekly.” (I’d read it.) Their colonial confidence gave me colonial confidence. And don’t we all need more of that in our lives?  Dressed as Colonial British officer's wife. The Studio My “studio” is portable, in a wagon—yep—with a backdrop stand held up by a bag of cornmeal. (JK, it's just playground-grade sand.) I carried around one light that many calle...