Ernst Haas

New England, 1960 

     I get homesick very easily. Not being native to New York City, I am both attracted to it's urban setting and energy, yet uncomfortable by it's intense "concrete jungle" and constant speed. I am from a fairly rural area in upstate New York, way North along the Mohawk River. I love the countryside, I love old winding roads through the woods, and simple people who love where they live and care for no other place. Obviously, New England is different from upstate New York, but this picture has a way of capturing a little bit of home for me. When I saw it, I was moved to homesickness, yet comforted by it's hue and composition. 

Haas has done something great for me in this image. He has brought a little bit of home back to my heart, and it has done me a great comfort. 

Michael Kenna

Altar and Prie-Dieu, Hautvillers, Champagne-Ardenne, France. 2001

Church architecture has always been one of my favorites. As a young man, I enjoy seeking out beautiful churches, going inside them and then forgetting to pray because I'm too busy marveling at the beauty of their interiors. When I see a beautiful church from the outside, I can't help but marvel at it's figure, the hight of it's bell towers, the symmetry of it's masonry, the density of it's color, and the structure of it's design. It is fitting that the places set aside for the worship and veneration of an all perfect, all beautiful God, work so hard to imitate that essence of the divine. You know a beautiful church when simply entering into it's interior is enough to calm your heart of the biggest and baddest storms that are raging within. But this blog isn't about churches or Catholicism, rather it's about photography. So, I found some Michael Kenna photo's that particularly capture--in a very simple black and white way--the interesting beauty of churches around the world.

 With that said, I can look at the works of Michael Kenna and see a beauty in capturing architecture in strictly black and white. It adds a duality as well as a refined, crisp, cool, peaceful, and eerie attitude towards the shots. As I grow in my enjoyment of taking shots of church architecture, I look forward to using more black and white.

Sacred Heart, Chimayo, New Mexico, USA. 1993

Cloisters, Study 1, Mont St. Michel, France. 2000

Ave Maria Shrine, Venice, Italy. 2008

Six Saints, Notre Dame, Paris, France. 2012