Framing Faith: A Photographer’s View
by the FBC Photography Group
View and enlarge all images in this article (and more) here: https://bit.ly/FBCFramingFaith
When the FBC Photography Group was asked to contribute an article to the blog, we did what we do so well every month. We gathered as a community on Zoom to share 5 photos each. We asked the following questions:
• How do faith and photography intersect?
• How do our photos show faith?
• How does faith influence our photos?
After a lively discussion, we helped each other choose one photo each to share with commentary.
The graphic above summarizes our discussion, with the help of the NotebookLM AI tool. What follows are our photos and comments.
The photographers are Karen Brockney, Stan Brodsky, Gail Granum, Tom Grisso, Betsy Lambert, Pam Liew, and Dick Whitten.
Sometimes photography is Serendipity. It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time to capture an image of wonder, delight and mystery. This bride crossing a busy Parisian avenue is a perfect moment of Serendipity. Sometimes faith is like that, too, when we are in the right place at the right time to catch a glimpse of God’s wonder, to share God’s love, and to be a part of God’s work in our world. Faith surprises, delights and sustains us to live out God’s vision for us.
Karen Brockney
This beam of light in a cathedral reminds me of a connection between photography and God. In Judeo-Christian texts, light often represents God and is said to be the first thing God created. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5). The Greek words “photo” (light) and “graph” (drawing or writing) name photography as the art of “drawing with light.” Light reflected off objects in God’s world enter a lens to be caught on light-sensitive plates, film, or digital cells. I sometimes feel I am doing something sacred when editing my photos, as though I have captured an image—a “light-drawing”—of God in the world. Photography can be a way to glimpse God. If I get it just right, sometimes it’s even more than a glimpse.
Tom Grisso
Faith is invisible to others unless expressed through communication or through worldly activity, including photography. This image, of a Japanese garden bridge, provides important symbolism of faith. The bridge can provide safe passage across the murky waters of life below, but its reflection completes a circle through the murky waters that contain life in need of enlightenment. White lilies in the center symbolize a source of enlightenment, that can radiate in all directions to inspire faith in all it reaches. A song by Gordon Light in 1944, says “Draw the Circle Wide”, so that it includes everyone, requiring that no one has to stand alone. The Weeping Willow tree is also reflected in the murky water but is rooted outside the circle and has a mournful posture, that provides a partial shade to all life below.
Dick Whitten
The spiritual meaning of faith is a deep trust and confident reliance on a divine reality, or unseen truth. It is not just knowing that something is true (like a chair exists) but actually sitting in it, acting on that truth, and aligning your life with God’s plan, even when things aren’t fully understood.
Water, pebbles in this picture, flows all around us, seemingly representing you as persons sitting in the bigger essence.
One of the golden shapes might be you trying to align your direction with the truth God would have you go.
The picture of these pebbles definitely has some flow to it. You are sitting within God’s master plan. Relax and let it drift.
Gail Granum
When I am out on a walk, I look for God to surprise me with unnecessary beauty in nature. I often find it in the interaction between water and light, as you can see in this photo. None of that had to be pretty, which speaks to me of a God who loves color and form and a vast array of qualities that are unique to each living thing. To me, there is also beauty to be found in the intelligence behind the science of nature. The submerged oak leaf and the ice on the surface of the water are both due to the Earth’s tilt, while the ‘cool’ fact that ice floats, when most solids sink, relates to crystal structure. Looking out or looking in, there are plenty of great reminders that God is a brilliant creator and full of surprises, and some of these can be captured in photographs.
Betsy Lambert
Mikail Bulgakov wrote, “The tongue may hide the truth but the eyes—never!” This photo feels as if it leads me down down into the mind and the soul and heart of this lovely subject. The more I look, the more I see, perhaps a moral lesson for allowing oneself to slowly, surely appreciate the essence of others’ beings.
Stan Brodsky
Light is to photography what grace is to faith; the quality that makes all the difference.
Pam Liew
