A few more pictures from New York before I come back home. This is another shot from the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. A member of my group gives a sense of scale while photographing Anne Patterson's installation, Divine Pathways. It's only there through June if you are interested in seeing it.
I need to find some new material back here in The Lou. My mobility is somewhat limited by my back issues (new medical consultation soon) but I should be able to find something.
Rain threatened off and on all of Friday and our street photography group modified its schedule. We visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the seat of the Episcopal Church in New York. It is massive and yet unfinished. Doesn't get a lot of visitors as it's a bit out of the way, located on the far Upper West Side, between the northwest corner of Central Park and Columbia University.
Much of the nave is taken up by the stunning artwork Divine Pathways by Anne Patterson. No matter your religious preference, it creates a strong connection with something beyond us.
Spain, as westerners know, was intensely Catholic. After all, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who drove the last Muslim kingdom from Iberia and dispatched Columbus to the New World to, in the end, plunder and spread communicable disease, were known as Los Reyes Catolicos. It gave us the Spanish Inquisition. Like most of Europe, churchgoing isn't so much of a thing these days, but the monuments remain. The Toledo Cathedral is enormous and made me think about the portion of the region's resources devoted to creating it. I come from a Catholic family and education so, you know, I'm just saying.
This hasn't been much of a St. Louis photo blog lately. It's going to get worse. I arrive in New York today for a five day street photography workshop. Home sweet home.
Still in the Bologna cathedral pending getting back out on the street at home. We have been in a lot of big churches but the rhythm of shape and space, the theme and variations, in this one particularly impressed us.
While we were visiting the Bologna cathedral, we heard a beautiful baritone voice singing a hymn. I thought a service of some kind had started, but when I turned I saw this. A man in a tee shirt, presumably a tourist, stood before the sanctuary and performed a sacred song in a powerful voice. I don't know if he was part of a tour group and I certainly don't know what inspired him. Perhaps it was the space itself.
It's hard to see in this picture but his shirt says Born To Be Wild. Chose your own definition.
This view makes me think of how the vault of the Bologna cathedral is held together. It seems to be laced up securely.
