ecclesiastical | alan frost photography

Posts tagged ‘ecclesiastical’

Light out of Darkness

In the past few days I have been reading ‘Steeple Chasing – Around Britain by Church’ by Peter Ross. I am now about half way through the book and I am thoroughly enjoying both the content and the well written word. I can highly recommend it.

In the first chapter titled ‘Darkness’ two short passages spoke to me and in so many ways succinctly described my own feelings when visiting churches.

The first and I quote – “And so, as I grew older, I found myself drawn back – not to pray necessarily, but to sit for a bit, to poke around, to get in out of the rain. I began to appreciate the wisdom of John Betjeman’s words: ‘Church crawling is the richest of pleasures, it leads you to the remotest and quietest country, it introduces you to the history of England in stone and wood and glass which is always truer than what you read in books’”

In the second passage the author refers a visit to the Benedictine Abbey at Pluscarden in Scotland following the recent passing of his father. He writes – “…… it brought me a peace that I hadn’t felt for many weeks. I left far lighter than I had come. Was this a religious experience? I don’t know. Perhaps it was just being forced to spend long hours sitting in quiet. ‘It kind of gets inside you / The silence I mean,’ sings Linda Perhacs in her beautiful song ‘Chimacum Rain’, and old churches are like that. You are entering a building but really it is entering you.”

The six images shown here are a collection I have made over many years from visiting a variety of churches. I love to watch the light as it moves around, highlighting subjects which would otherwise be in virtual darkness. I endeavour to capture the feelings of stillness, of quiet and of solitude, prevalent in churches but not quite so easy to find elsewhere.

Perhaps it goes without saying that in the Bible the metaphorical meaning of light and darkness is often used to compare good and evil.

In John 1:5 “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

My first exhibition as part of The Festival of Chichester

I was invited a few weeks ago to be one of five artists to exhibit their work at the Courtyard Studios near Chilgrove, just to the north west of Chichester. The title of the exhibition is ‘New Art of the South Downs’ and has been curated by Terry and Nicola Hancock. I am delighted to have been asked and to have the opportunity to display some of my work. I will be showing several A2 signed and framed prints of my ecclesiastical images, all of which will be for sale.

Sanctuary by Alan Frost

The Exhibition runs from Saturday 1st July until Saturday 8th July; 11am – 5pm each day, but closed on Monday and Tuesday.

The South Downs has long inspired art and creativity and the exhibition is located in the heart of the National Park near Kingley Vale. Each of the five artists offer a fresh interpretation of what it is to live and create in this beautiful area. Original paintings, prints, sculptures and of course my photographs will be on show and available for sale.

Nicola Hancock

Shelagh Wilson

Alan Williams

Geraldine Barton

This opportunity came about as a result of a meeting with Terry Hancock who runs Reframe, a picture framing business, which all forms part of the gallery and studio space at Courtyard Studios. I had asked him to frame my work for what I had thought would be my first exhibition in The Oxmarket in November, which has now been overtaken by this event.

The exhibition is part of The Festival of Chichester which started on the 16th June and ends on the 17th July. During this period the City is staging over 200 varied events, including all forms of music, exhibitions, talks, theatre, book events, in fact anything connected to the arts is being celebrated.

If you plan to visit the exhibition, the address is Courtyard Studios, The Courtyard, Crows Hall Farm, Chilgrove, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 9HP.

St Davids Cathedral – capturing the light

There are many reasons why I enjoy being in a church or cathedral. Making photographs which capture the light inside these special places is just one reason – it gives me a great deal of pleasure.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I can spend many an hour waiting for the right light. There are also occasions when little or no waiting is required and a sixth sense just tells me I should be inside even when the sun is shining outside. Photographing St Davids Cathedral on the first afternoon of my visit to Pembrokeshire turned out to be one such occasion.

I had driven the best part of 300 miles that day and had arranged to meet Andy Beel FRPS and the three other photographers in our group at 4pm. The light was good and St Davids Cathedral was only a short walk from our small hotel where we would be spending the next few days.

Bathed in the late afternoon light the Cathedral and grounds looked lovely but as soon as we arrived I instinctively knew that I should be inside and not outside. I just had a feeling that the lighting conditions could be working their magic and so it was.

The combination of the strong low sunlight and the shadows that were being cast only lasted about half an hour but it was more than enough time for me to capture the five images that make up this post.

During the course of the week we did return to St Davids Cathedral at different times of the day, but the light was never quite as good as that brief encounter on the first afternoon. I am sure my fellow workshop participants captured some good shots outside, but I don’t regret my decision to have acted differently and I hope they have forgiven me for disappearing so quickly after our first meeting.

I will be posting more entries and photographs of this Cathedral in the near future.