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B+WFor hundreds of years people of faith have expressed their beliefs by
undertaking a special journey to a shrine or special place of religious
significance. Today many of these historic routes are still travelled,
offering the pilgrim the opportunity for reflection, redemption and
hope. One of the most famous is undertaken every August at
Ireland’s Croagh Patrick.
For photographers such as Markéta Luskačová and Josef
Koudelka, documenting pilgrims on their physical journey has left
us with some very powerful images. Yet, in addition to the devotees,
smaller pilgrimage sites such as grottoes or shrines have their own
fascinating and highly visual folklore. This example of a rag tree next
to a holy well in Ireland shows the remnants of fabric tied to the tree
by decades of visitors.
4 RELIGIOUS PILGRIMAGE
While not intended to replace religious worship, many modern day
events such as attending a football match or a music festival share
similar rituals, behaviours and outcomes. An easy and regular event to
shoot is the Saturday afternoon walk to a football ground, especially if
your local team pulls in a good crowd and the stadium is still set within
the built-up confines of the city, as this example shows.
Walking with the crowd and shooting from within is a great way to
overcome any reservations you may have about taking pictures of
people and can provide you with ready-made scenes of unguarded
tribal behaviour. Plan your strategy and check which routes will be
busiest before you embark on the shoot. Remember, fans will start
their walk up to the ground a couple of hours before kick-off, so you
will have plenty of time to make pictures.
2 THE ROAD AS METAPHOR 3 URBAN HIGH LINE
Many photographers and artists have framed their projects along
roads, routes and passages through the landscape, including
Ed Ruscha, Hamish Fulton and Richard Long. For Paul Graham
and his book A1: The Great North Road the project was not just
about documenting the physical elements of the route, but exploring
the cultural differences between north and south, rich and poor.
The road was used as a conceptual strategy to structure a richer
and more complex story, a metaphor or symbol of something bigger.
Devise a short walk that allows you to observe and shoot evidence
of the bigger picture, such as this seafront promenade in Kent,
full of thought-provoking signage.
In our fast developing modern cities, architects and planners have
been keen to maximise limited space by creating high-level walkways.
Set above ground in completely new space, often linking previously
unconnected areas together, they can seem like they’ve come from
science fiction. High-rise retail developments like this example in
Singapore, or found in Liverpool One, create unusually high
vantage points for views of the surrounding cityscape.
Explore an urban high line and contrast old against new or private
against public. The most famous raised space is New York’s High
Line, created from a disused overhead railway. This was best
photographed by Joel Sternfeld in his book Walking the High Line,
which captured an urban wilderness before redevelopment took place.2 34 55 MODERN PILGRIMAGE