Peter Lewicki is a photographer who features the clergy member in his pieces. Read how his project grew into an entire series entitled “Spirit and Light: Portraits of Clergy.”
As photographers, and more broadly as artists – we may not always challenge societal ideas or norms, but certainly we need to challenge ourselves every time we approach a new project. My portrait series. “Spirit and Light” reflects some of these personal and technical challenges.
A few months ago, I began this portrait series, looking at faith and spiritual leaders. It is my attempt at an honest non-judgmental look at those who have chosen a spiritual life, in spite of our allegedly secularizing society.
The project idea grew out of a one-off portrait I did of an Anglican priest here in Toronto, and since then the series has been shown online and in a solo gallery show this past summer.
I am exploring the idea of being a Spiritual leader in a 21st century environment. The project’s purpose isn’t to catalogue nor to compare and contrast faiths and religions. Instead, I am looking at what draws and keeps people in these leadership roles, the challenges clergy face, and their hopes for the future and for their communities. The stories and resulting portraits I’ve had so far have been fascinating.
“Spirit and Light” of course, is a play on words, not just the illumination that can come from a religious life, but with the light as the essential and fundamental building block of photography. Where possible, the light used was natural (with a few minor reflections or fill lights here and there) which I think gives each subject a serenity and helps accentuate the maturity of the subjects. The approach is unfussy, and direct, but it is not to say that there is not beauty and dignity in the portraits.
The lighting itself is, admittedly, influenced by the work of Jan Vermeer. I had spent some time looking at the work of Old Dutch painting masters . It adds a certain psychological depth to the subjects. Some, such as painter David Hockney, have argued that Vermeer was one of the first artists to use a camera obscura for his compositions, making him in effect one of the first “photographers” (Steadman, Philip, Vermeer’s Camera, 2002).
Afterwards I converted the images to black and white, stripping down the image to its essentials. As Ted Grant once said, “when you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls.”
The project can be seen at: http://www.lewickiphoto.com/-/