Description of Work

Glory - 2022 - Photography - Not For Sale

Artist's Statement

For centuries, religious artwork has used visuals to convey transcendent experiences, to tell biblical stories, and paint pictures of a higher being. Although images are much more common in today's culture, they continue to have the power to reach a deeper sense. The relationship between humanity and the divine is something that will always fascinate the minds of humanity, and this is the threadline throughout my work. My current work is investigating my reverence for the Christian God. It is about His creation, it’s beauty, the ethereal feeling of this intimate connection. My images are based on the idea that “God’s glory shines through His creation.” I explore this theme through cloudscapes and portraiture of my husband and I.

My images play on the idea of tangible versus intangible, what is seen versus what is felt, and what is transient versus what is permanent. Although we perceive what is real as what we can touch, the things that we feel physically are not as powerful as the things that we feel in our soul. While the physical relation between a husband and wife is tangible, what really binds a marriage is the deeper relational bonds. The traditional marriage vows; “in sickness and in health,” and  “till death do us part,” remind us that we are mortal. Much like the clouds, we take our place for a time, then fade away. From the dust we came, and to the dust we will return. We are but a vapor; snapshots in the vast expanse of the universe. Our photograph will live on even longer than we do. The person in a photograph can be seen, not touched, but somehow they are still felt years after they are gone. Getting close to my subjects allowed me to emphasize the tangibility of human life. It also allowed me to show the intimacy in my relationship with my husband, as this relation is a reflection of Christ and the church. 

Since a photograph is only a copy of the truth, it can never be the thing itself. Images are only the imperfect work of man rather than the unattainable reality of divine making. Just like my photographs, I am only a reflection of God, and therefore my work is only a simulacrum of the truth that I have found. This is evident in how I capture my subjects. While I could have used a digital format to make crisp and sharp images of my subjects, I chose to emphasize the impediment of human perspective through showing grain and selective focus throughout this series. The book format references the Bible, and the diptychs contained inside represent the relation between humanity and God. Representing a relationship as messy as the one between God and humanity in a  pristine, and high quality image would simplify the subject and paint this relationship in the wrong light. In the triptych images, I emphasize the glory of God through vibrant colors but also emphasize the limit of my human perspective through the blurring of the cloudscapes.

Photography allows me to explore these ideas because of its directness and pragmatic ability to record the world around me. This medium is also unique in that “a photograph is never less than the registering of an emanation (light waves reflected by objects)- a material vestige of its subject in a way that no painting can be” (Sontag). Since the clouds and ourselves are creations of God, we are not only like the subject, but we pay homage to the subject, and such is the case with a photograph.

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)