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In some ways, redefining the project’s boundaries let me introduce a kind of randomness into what I photographed. I would read about some religious event in the newspaper and go see if anything there could tell me more about my themes. When I got there I photographed what I saw as best I could with the formal language I was developing. The rhythm of the project shifted, as did the kinds of knowledge I had about the religious communities in the area. I made new mental maps connecting the churches and organizations to each other. The nuclear disarmament marches, for instance, and the specific network of churches that took part in them, were inscribed on my map now, as were the churches that provided for AIDS counseling and allowed gay and lesbian groups to meet in their facilities. I was developing a more general view of religion. I began to photograph these activities and added them to those of the missions and the church groups directly connected with them.
One event that I found listed in the newspaper and went to photograph was a Catholic mass broadcast “live” from Rome to Our Lady of Fatima Church in Seattle (fig. 33). At the mass at Our Lady of Fatima the video image of John Paul II was projected on two large screens at either side of the altar at the front of the church. The empty altar (an empty stage, really) was covered with a white cloth. High above the altar hung a statue of the ascendant Christ and above that a domed skylight. Two banners hung vertically from the wall on either side of the stage. One banner listed “THE GIFTS of the HOLY SPIRIT,” from wisdom to fear of the Lord; the other, “THE FRUITS of the HOLY SPIRIT,” from love to self-control. Fear was viewed positively, as a gift, and seemed connected to, perhaps required for, self-control. Fear of the Lord was an incentive to be good.
Self-control, in religious terms, is not perceived as a general quality but refers to |
Mass Communications |
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