Philadelphia, Pope’s Visit, Nuns 2
“You see what you know”
— Frank Stella
Click to View Larger
I love this picture, but not sure why, what do I see? When I look at it, am I seeing my photo or those of others?
For example: In 1948, Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed a group of Muslim women praying on a holy site overlooking the Indian city of Srinagar. The figures with their flowing garb appear almost sculptural. It’s a serene, contemplative scene, that contrasts with the turmoil in the region at that time.
In 1907, Alfred Stieglitz photographed two classes of passengers in his famous photo, The Steerage. On top are the upper-class passengers, all male with one solitary figure wearing a white hat looking down at the steerage-class people, both male and female, below. The Jewish men are wearing prayer shawls.
In 2015 I took this photograph in Philadelphia during the Pope’s visit. It was an exciting time with monks and nuns of every stripe and nationality wandering the city. We paused at a group setting up outside a church.
Looking at my photo, I am strongly reminded of the iconic pictures mentioned above. How much of my seeing is my vision of their pictures rather than the scene itself. Notable for me are the flowing head scarves and habits, almost like miniature waterfalls. Unlike Bresson’s scene of serenity, here it is one of movement, for example the cascading line of four faces beginning with the nun on the upper left down to the Madonna down to Sr Piedad and then the Madonna on her habit. Another is a spiral of faces and heads that circles the scene and once again ends with the nun in the center. The latter intrigues me. She looks unblemished and pensive. Perhaps a living Madonna.
The photographs of Stieglitz and Cartier-Bresson were not simple documentaries of the scenes they observed. The photographs were personal to them and their experiences. Mine is also personal. Perhaps what matters more is how I feel than what I see.
Muslim hijabs, Christian head scarves and apostolniks, Jewish tichels and tallit, these scarves and shawls are garb that help connect religious people to the Divine.
My connection to the Divine is through my camera. Here the flow, the beauty, the connection, the wholeness and the holiness of the photograph is my spiritual experience
What do you see?