Quotography Submission #2

Grace and Faith

As I’m sure all of you have come to realize, Quotograph images don’t just represent a set of words.  They represent how you feel about the words, and more importantly, they tell a story.

The last of my two submissions come with a story, for sure!

My second quote was a verse from the Bible, “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. [Ephesians 2:8]”

My first, obvious thought was to include an image of something involving a church, a Bible, a cross, rosary… something along those lines.  However, as with the last quote, I felt this deserved more.  I have an inherent respect for all things religious, regardless of the religion, and wanted to do better than just a shallow, surface representation of this.

I talked with another creative about this image, trying to come up with ideas worthy of the quote. At the time, I had a trip to NYC planned, and we had discussed photographing some of the famous cathedrals there, and somehow involving someone who was down on their luck.  Fortuitously, while in NYC I stumbled upon just such a scene and while I grabbed a few shots, they didn’t speak to me.

We continued with our agenda for the day, which included a visit to Chinatown to see a Buddhist temple (which was closed) and the 9/11 memorial (which was closing as we got there! Haha).  As we made our way down to the waterfront, we stumbled upon a gentleman in prayer out in an open space.

This was the moment I had been searching for.  It felt right to me. He was completely lost in prayer, and that alone spoke volumes. The fact that he was out in the open, (figuratively) naked to the world resonated with devotion to his religion. This was a man who was so invested in his beliefs that could forgo the trappings and icons of religion, and still find his connection to faith. It was an inspiring scene.

I hope you, regardless of personal philosophy, are able to find something meaningful in that moment for yourself.