LOCAL NEWS

Prominent photojournalist Jeffrey Allred retires from Deseret News after 32 years

Jan 27, 2025, 11:50 AM

SALT LAKE CITY — The Deseret News is celebrating the retirement of one of its prestigious photojournalists after he spent his career capturing moments that touched the lives of many.

The man behind the camera is Jeffrey D. Allred. His images served The Deseret News and The Church News, some captured half a world away, and others were closer to home.

Allred knows instinctively — if a moment catches his eye, it will do the same for ours.

Doug Wilks, executive editor of The Deseret News brought his staff together weeks ago to celebrate Allred.

“All of us could say something about Jeff, we love working with you,” Wilks said.

After 40 years as a photojournalist, and 32 logged at the Deseret News, Allred’s supervisors and colleagues honored him, emphasizing his gifts and gentle nature. He said he’s retiring from an award-winning career that almost didn’t happen.

“My mother had always wanted a dentist in the family and she really wanted me to be a dentist,” he said. “I’m at Utah State and I’m thinking, ‘OK, I’ll give it a go.'”

But it was a photography class his brother suggested, that changed his course.

“It was magical! It was like a miracle!” he said. “And I thought, ‘This is it! I want to do this!’”

Telling stories through photos became his passion, and he would go on to travel to 72 countries pursuing stories.

In an interview with KSL TV, he detailed an intimate moment he caught on camera

Jeff and I looked and reminisced. It is often, he says, those intimate moments, like this one with a man who was homeless.

“I just sat down by him and said, ‘Hey, my name’s Jeff and tell me about you. What’s your name? And tell me why you’re here and what your past is like …’ A lot of times we don’t ask to shoot pictures, we shoot first, ask later, but in this situation, it’s so intimate, I decided to ask him first.”

Pops pauses while eating at St. Vincent de Paul Dining Hall in Salt Lake City on Friday, March 11, 2016. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Another is a scene of military families saying goodbye, while a child cries.

“I’m glad there’s a camera in front of my face because I was balling, I was crying,” Allred said. “There’s this little girl, who is 4 years old, and her father’s going away for a year… I get in really close and just show that emotion, heartbreaking.”

Three-year-old Mia Peterson cries with her mother Rebecca as she waves goodbye to her dad as he and other members of the 2nd Battalion, 211th Army Aviation Regiment depart for a 12-month deployment on Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008, in Salt Lake City. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Going inside the Carmelite Monastery in Holladay was a shared assignment between KSL TV and the Deseret News in 2000, but the other photographers who were assigned were women.

“They took a leap of faith letting me in …” he recall “It was amazing! I had no idea what to expect.”

Sister Mary Joseph looks through a stained glass window at the Carmelite Monastery in 2000. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

When in Rome in 2019, Allred was captured by KSL TV photographers as he worked to capture a historic photograph of the 15 senior leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints there.

“One of the more pressure-filled assignments was this day,” Allred laughed. “To say the least! You take a moment that has never been done before and may never be done again. We’re looking at the right time of day, figure out the lighting and you have to use a pretty wide angle lens for this, too, so there’s this technical factor but trying to direct 15 of the Church’s hierarchy was not for the faint of heart! They were having so much fun, it was enjoyable and made my life easier to shoot it.”

Members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stand for an iconic photograph in the Rome Italy Temple Visitors’ Center in Rome, Italy, on Wednesday, March 20, 2019. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Allred also captured Buddhist monks in Cambodia at Ankur Wat.

“They approached me and I wanted to show them and they loved this,” he said. “They were seeing pictures of themselves and they were having such a great time!”

Jeffrey Allred shows photos to Buddhist Monks in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, on May 8, 2018. (Courtesy Lori Allred)

Then there was the orphanage in Vladivostok, Russia.

“I remember handing one little boy a Snickers candy bar and he’d never had one of these in his life. But he took a bite out of it and said, ‘This is good!’ And he said to me, ‘Have a bite!’,” Allred recalled. “He wanted me to have of bite of the candy bar, kind of broke my heart.”

Children sit on their beds inside one of the better Russian Orphanages in March 2000. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

In 1997, during the Church of Jesus Christ Pioneer Trek reenactment, a covered wagon that had traveled from Winter Quarters, Nebraska and reached Easy Canyon suddenly collapsed.

“These mules got spooked; they threw the driver off; the wagon starts to disintegrate,” Allred said. “They keep coming toward me and coming and coming and I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to get trampled!’ And at the last minute, they veered off to the side and kind of stumbled and everybody’s OK!”

The photo became famous, finding its way around the world.

A wagon from Burley, Idaho, loses control and breaks apart coming down a steep hill at East Canyon during the Latter-day Saint pioneer trek reenactment in Utah in 1997. The group traveled from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake City over a three-month period, tracing the pioneer trail. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

“I love the future of journalism,” Allred said, when asked about whether he’s optimistic about the field. “I love it, and there’s a place for it. As I teach students about still photography, about photojournalism, I encourage them because there’s always going to be a place for the next best photographer. We can inform the public, it’s our duty, our job and it’s a lot of fun.”

When asked about his favorite, Allred detailed a weightless discovery flight.

“They take the plane back up to 30,000 feet and then back down to 15,000 feet, very quickly and so you’re just floating around inside this plane,” he said. “It’s probably the most fun assignment I’ve ever been on!”

Jeffrey Allred is weightless as he photographs Weightless Flights of Discovery on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2010. (Chris Detrick, The Salt Lake Tribune)

Jeff may be retiring, but he said he’s not leaving entirely.

“I’m going to (photograph for) the rest of my life,” he said. “I’m going until I’m 99 ½, I’m going to do it!”


Ryder Wright wins the saddle bronc in the Utah high school rodeos final in Heber on Saturday, June 4, 2016. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Payson and Hillcrest in the 4A high school volleyball playoffs at UVU in Orem on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Nurse Elizabeth Howell carries 4-year-old Oresto Oclor to a hospital for surgery after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Friday, Jan. 22, 2010. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Jazz guard John Stockton drives on the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, Nov. 25, 1988. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Muhammad Ali lights the first Olympic Relay Torch prior to the torch relay in Atlanta on Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Women chat on a stone wall near Machu Picchu in Peru on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Buddhist monks ride during a religious ceremony at Angkor Wat in Cambodia on Apr 28, 2018. Angkor Wat is a 12th century temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Deseret News photojournalist Jeffrey Allred photographs a riot in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 20, 2020. (Cody Neilson, KSL TV)

Photojournalist Jeffrey D. Allred capturing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Washington D.C. Temple. (Deseret News)

Lori Tonge, who is homeless, grimaces as she gets a flu shot in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. Volunteers with the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake delivered boxed meals and provided vaccines for homeless people during the organization’s Two-Days-Before-Thanksgiving Banquet. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

President Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, tours the renovation work at the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 22, 2021. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

A protester throws a water bottle at police in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 30, 2020. Protesters joined others across the nation to decry the death of George Floyd, a black man, who died while being taken into custody by police in Minneapolis. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

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Prominent photojournalist Jeffrey Allred retires from Deseret News after 32 years