As a long-term project, I’ve been photographing houses of worship in Brooklyn, New York. Brooklyn had been referred to as the “City of Churches” in the 19th century and having grown up in Brooklyn, churches of all kinds were a familiar sight for me. This project started while I was a student at Pratt with the title “City of Churches" and I mostly photographed large churches with steeples you can see across the city and then began to focus on the neighborhood storefront churches that exist throughout Brooklyn.
Then with the inclusion of synagogues, the project name changed to “Houses of Worship”. My focus has been on the architecture, the history, the aesthetics of the space and its importance to each community.
These religious spaces often have different meanings for each person, whether it's historically, culturally, or personally significant and I seek to explore the way these spaces affect us. Sometimes simply being there in a house of worship can elicit a surprising emotion or response. These are spaces of prayer, elevation, contemplation, beauty and identity.
Every image you see here has been taken with either 4x5 film, 35mm film, or digitally. As the project develops, the formats have changed but the purpose remains the same.
