Behind the Lens: Photographing the 'Army of God'

Associated Press photographers talk about their 2022 assignments, and share some of the stories behind the images.

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THE PLACE: Batavia, New York, United States

THE STORY: Michael Flynn's ReAwaken road show recruits ‘Army of God’

THE PHOTOGRAPHER: Carolyn Kaster

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ON THE PREP WORK INVOLVED:

I did some groundwork before I went there. I got there a day early. I didn’t stay at a hotel, I stayed at a local B&B and started talking to people. I went around the site, I went to a restaurant that had the most cars — just trying to get a sense of what the community was like, even though I knew that mostly people from the outside were coming to the event. I found where the hospital was, I found where the two police stations were. I did that kind of thing just to really acclimate myself to the physical surroundings. And I looked at what people were wearing, I tried to be just kind of low frequency, just kind of a blank slate going in.

I didn’t paint myself as anything other than what I was. But I didn’t advertise it, either. If anyone asked me what I was doing, I told them who I was and where I was from. We’re in the information business, and I believe in telling the truth. I felt really strongly about telling people who I was if they wanted to know.

ON CONNECTING WITH PEOPLE WHO MIGHT NOT TRUST YOU:

I kind of opened myself up to people. And people love to talk, too. So I didn’t really take pictures for the first half of the first day. I just really observed and saw the rhythm of how people were taking pictures. It’s a cell phone kind of life. Everybody was taking selfies with each other and I just kind of worked myself into the rhythm of that event. You do this thing as a photographer where after a while people get used to seeing you. And I think that that worked well....