With You

As a outsider who comes from a nonreligious family, I am attracted to the religious life of US people. The glamour and mysteries of Christianity drive me to take part in the religious activities to feel this fresh field. Through the creation of this body of work, I saw many activities from the religious life of people, and some details such as how people show their respect during mass and how people free their emotions in the churches. In this process of observation, I noticed sometimes people in the religious life may not be aware of how deep their beliefs have been in their life, but all the reactions have turned to a kind of instinctive reaction. They know they are born with it, live with it, and fight for it. Therefore, it is my intension to communicate with the viewers whether a believer or not to feel how important the belief is for a true believer. From my own observation, belief is like a companion with them, so I named my project as With You.

Technically, I am inspired by the works from the documentary photographer Bieke Depoorter and Diana Markosian. Their photographs provide hints about approaching the belief issue from an objective outsider point of view. That is why I chose a neutral eye level and a balanced composition to display the relationship between the prayers and the churches they walked in. I chose black and white to get rid of the distraction of colors, and to enhance the peaceful atmosphere in the photos.