Houses of the Holy by Steve Parker

June 17, 2015 Fuji, Mirrorless, News 17

Houses of the Holy

By Steve Parker

Hi Brandon and Steve,

I’ve been a long time reader of your site and having read and learned so much from yourselves and other contributors to the site I thought I would stick my head above the parapet and contribute a few images from my ‘Houses of the Holy’ project.

I have long been fascinated by the incredible architecture of places of worship around the world and stand in awe of the craftsmanship that goes into the design and construction of these buildings. Wherever I am in the world I find myself being pulled first toward the churches and cathedrals and so, from that pull, decided to turn it into an on-going project.

The three images here are taken in my home country- England. Two are of them are of Winchester Cathedral which is to be found in the county of Hampshire. It is one of the largest cathedrals in England. The smaller, less ornate building is Quarr Abbey a monastery located between the villages of Binstead and Fishbourne on the Isle of Wight in southern England. The name is pronounced as “Kor”.

As you can see, I tend to favour B&W with a dark look and feel to them but I also like to selectively ‘light them up’ a bit; sometimes to accentuate what is already present but more often than not, I just put light where it shouldn’t be! A few people have criticised me for that and have taken the time to tell me about the laws and nature of light. Whilst I do understand these laws, I don’t particularly worry too much about it. To me, it gives them a bit of a different look and, as photography is all about creativity, I’m happy with that.

With regards to equipment used, I don’t have a particular allegiance to any brand (although I am a bit of a fan of Fuji’s to be honest). Because I manipulate my images so much, it doesn’t matter too much to me what camera I use. If I recall, Quarr Abbey was shot with a Fuji XA-1 and Winchester Cathedral with a Lumix LX7. All are hand-held using available light and processed either in Lightroom or Photoshop (likely both!).

Quarr Abbey

I hope you like them and if you want to see more of my B&W work I can be found at www.steveparkerphotography.com or on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsteveparker/

Thanks for the opportunity and for all that you do with this site. It’s a rare gem.

Regards

Steve Parker

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17 Comments

  2. This is a great idea for a project. Would love to see something like this done at Christmas (in b&w, of course!). I’ve had a very brief look through your photos on Flickr and I like your approach to your subjects very much.

    As far as adding light goes, it’s fine as long as you state that you’ve done this. I don’t like metaphotography very much at all, but there is no reason why it shouldn’t be appreciated. Though some people will say that all photographs are manipulations of reality, I don’t agree, even though I understand the arguement. What matters most is disclosure.

  3. Thank you all for taking the time to look and comment. I’m glad you liked them.

  5. I love all of those especially the lighting, whether its meant to be there or not, its stunning

  12. Inspirational images and your website is a must do visit for any monochrome photographer. Your images all have those four important ingredients…Light, Subject, Composition and Idea. Thanks for sharing your vision in photography.

  15. Great use of b/w and superb imagery on you site. Clearly, you have a way with b/w photography. Thanks for sharing.

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