Thebaid Project awarded 2018 Ganister Foundation Grant

On October 29, 2018 By zosimasIn Project, Publishing2 Comments

The Ganister Foundation recognizes the North American Thebaid for its “innovative approach to advancing the mission of Orthodoxy in the United States.”

The Ganister Orthodox Foundation recently announced its grant recipients for 2018, which included the North American Thebaid Project, a two-year photographic pilgrimage covering over thirty Orthodox Christian monasteries across the continent from several jurisdictions, including over a dozen monasteries of the Orthodox Church in America.

Founded in 2001, the Ganister Orthodox Foundation:

Provides financial assistance for organizations and parishes with innovative approaches to advancing the mission of Orthodoxy in the United States…

Favor is given to proposals that address priority needs of the Orthodox Church in America, especially those that do so in catalytic ways.

The selection process also weighs leadership experience, clarity of goals, the presence of a stable funding base, and faithfulness to the teachings and ministry of the OCA. (Emphasis added.)

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Thebaid Project Update – hiatus, preparation, and getting back on the road

On June 19, 2017June 20, 2017 By zosimasIn Project1 Comment

A special update on the North American Thebaid Project, especially coming off this recent “quiet” period during Great Lent and the Pascha/Easter season.

Actually, there has been a great deal going on in the background, most of which is sketched out below, and you’ll see why I didn’t feel it was worth posting about at the time, as the details seem rather dull on the surface. But when it is all pulled together now, it makes for a good narrative, and helps relate the causes of my absence, as well as my eagerness to resume travel and photography.

So, here are the updates, arranged topically:

Temp Job & Auto Maintenance — The Thebaid Project has been quiet recently primarily due to an unexpected fundraising opportunity. Thanks to a referral from one of the project’s main advisors and supporters, I was able to take on a full-time administrative temp job for three months, in order to raise extra funds for the Thebaid project. This proved to be doubly providential, enabling me to take care of some major (and unexpected!) car maintenance (battery, alternator, belts), over and above normal service. A commitment from another supporter to replace two tires showing wear and dry-rot (we replaced the first pair of tires in September 2016) means that my vehicle should be quite roadworthy for the remainder of the project travel through mid-2018, God willing. And, I will still benefit from modest savings from the temp job gig. Had I pressed forward with travel instead of accepting the job offer, I might very well have had a breakdown on the road, with added expense due to hotel stays and possible towing beyond my AAA coverage. Thanks be to God!

Travel & Photography to resume in July — I am currently firming up details on the major legs of the pilgrimage: the Northeast, Midwest, the Northern Plains, Pacific Northwest and Alberta Canada, and California. Alaska timing is uncertain at this point. I am planning to cover the Southeast and Southwest in Late Autumn and Winter, following the seasons. My intent is to have the photography completed by April or May 2018, and be in a position to send the book to the printer by June 2018.

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Phase II of the North American Thebaid has Officially Launched!

On February 7, 2017February 7, 2017 By zosimasIn crowdfunding, Project2 Comments

After our successful first season of travel and photography to several monasteries, and presentations at Orthodox parishes across five states, we’re officially announcing Phase II of the North American Thebaid Photographic Pilgrimage…

new-thebaid-cover-promo — Support the North American Thebaid at our GoFundMe page…

Phase I fundraising was a solid success. Raising 92% of our initial goal, it enabled travel and photography to begin in Summer 2016, with photographs made at five monasteries across three states, and a return visit to Ellwood City for some strong images (such as above) at the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration.

Having tested and proven our plans, we are moving into the main stretch of the Thebaid Pilgrimage: 2017 will see the bulk of the travel and the longest legs of the journey, literally to the four corners of North America.

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Hesychia for the Holy Days

On December 26, 2016 By zosimasIn Photographs2 Comments

As we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, here are some images of stillness, purity and beauty…

“Peace on earth, good will towards men!” ~Luke 2:14

“Beauty will save the world” ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

Explore more of these images from my book, Pursuing the Light – Forty Years of Photography…

Pond and Woods in Winter #1, Deam Lake State Park, Indiana

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New Photographs from Transfiguration

On November 29, 2016 By zosimasIn Photographs, ProjectLeave a comment

Here is a new photograph I made in late October at a return visit to the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City PA. You can view the full gallery here.

More on Photography: ‘Vision is Better’

On September 2, 2016 By zosimasIn Photographs, Spirituality1 Comment

This past year I’ve begun following photographer David duChemin. He is a wonderful photographer and I love his images, his approach. But I have been stunned at how his words about photography sound at times like Orthodox Christian Monastic and Patristic writings.

I find his approach to photography to resonate very strongly with my own. I hope you enjoy his words and images. (Emphasis added…)

Excerpts from Vision is Better

by David du Chemin

Remember when every frame was golden and filled with wonder? Remember being so in love with the strange, beautiful alchemy of this craft that we weren’t looking for atta-boys or Facebook likes? When our joy came from the creation, not the feedback? Remember how that joy led to curious, creative play, and the way the hours would pass while we were on our knees with a camera in the grass, or watching images come alive in the darkroom? Remember when the name on our gear didn’t matter because it was just all so mind-blowingly magical and we didn’t care what others thought about us? I do…

Learning to be a photographer is learning to see. It’s about receptivity. Perception. An openness to the world around us. Wonder. Curiosity. And yes, the growing ability to wield these clumsy black boxes to turn the light into an image.

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Market Study confirms: The Thebaid Project is Unique (Updated)

On August 26, 2016August 26, 2016 By zosimasIn Monasteries, Photographs, Project2 Comments

The North American Thebaid is truly unique in the Orthodox Christian world. Market research reveals very few projects similar to this in scope or purpose, and nothing like it in North America. Most photo books on Orthodox monasticism center on exotic and legendary locales such as Mount Athos in Greece, or St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai, or on church art and architecture.

Light in DesertBook-OBrien — ‘Light in the Desert’, by Tony O’Brien, University of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe.

Much more than a documentary or photo essay, the images selected for the Thebaid book will resonate with Dostoevsky’s famous dictum, “Beauty will save the world.”

Both inspirational and informational, the Thebaid book will be something to linger over and return to again and again, conveying the unseen mystery and beauty of Orthodox monasticism through visual means, and drawing the viewer to “ask, seek and knock”, and to go deeper into the Orthodox Christian faith.

Because of this podvig of seeking to explore the apophatic, hidden life of the Monastic Way using visual means, I have sought to articulate a ‘Theology of Photography’ (see here and here). It is this emphasis which sets the North American Thebaid Project somewhat apart, and which requires some comparison with other photography books on monasticism.

I am deeply indebted to Archimandrite Gerasim (Eliel) of the OCA Diocese of the South who, in a conversation back in February 2016, urged me to conduct an actual “market study”, to survey and identify photographic books both similar to, as well as different from, my concept for the North American Thebaid. What I discovered is both illuminating, and inspiring.

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A Theology of Photography, Part 2 [Updated]

On August 23, 2016August 23, 2016 By zosimasIn Photographs, Theology3 Comments

Dawn Through Trees — ‘God Playing Hide and Seek’ — © Ralph H. Sidway (Title by J. Howe)

A commenter on the North American Thebaid Facebook Page had this to say concerning my recent blog post, ‘Pursuing the Light’ – A Theology of Photography:

There is no theology of photography. So we work with light? duh. All visual art works with light. So what? Photography is just a tool we use to say what we want to say, like any other artistic tool, be it pencils or pens or paints or clay. Don’t make it something it is not.

This is quite a direct challenge, and on the surface, seems very strong. Here is my response (my emphasis added):

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‘Pursuing the Light’ – A Theology of Photography

On August 20, 2016August 21, 2016 By zosimasIn Photographs, Project, Theology4 Comments

In talking and sharing about the North American Thebaid Project, I feel compelled to try to describe both what it is, and what it is not.

Much of this description revolves around the type of photography I seek to apply to the project.

Often I find it much easier to say “what it is not.”

My “apophatic” description of the North American Thebaid Project leads me to ask if you are familiar with the recent book by Alexei Krindatch, Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Monasteries.

His is a fine guide and a delightful, even inspiring, reference book, with many wonderful photos of monasteries and monastic life; it is at the same time not at all the type of photography or the sort of book I have set out to produce.

My background is more in fine art photography than documentary or even journalistic photography (categories which might best describe Alexei’s work).

Working primarily in black & white — which by its very nature abstracts the subject, shifting it beyond place and time — I’ve seen my gelatin silver prints selected for juried exhibits (and even win some awards) since 1983. For almost twenty years I worked in a range of film formats: 35mm, 120 (medium format), and 4×5 (large format). Then, at the turn of the century/millennium, I began making my first photographs using the digital medium, and had my first museum-grade, fine-art inkjet prints selected for the Water Tower Annual, in Louisville KY.

After a major digital camera upgrade in 2008, I returned to fine art landscape photography with renewed vigor and vision, and in 2014 published a coffee table book titled Pursuing the Light, a forty-year retrospective of my landscape photographs. The process of preparing that book led me to reflect on just what photography is, from an Orthodox Christian theological and aesthetical viewpoint. I have adapted some of my insights from the Preface to my book, and wish to share them with you.

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NEW, BONUS PERK for Crowdfunding Supporters

On August 2, 2016August 1, 2016 By zosimasIn crowdfunding, PhotographsLeave a comment

We’re off to a great start with our crowdfunding campaign for the North American Thebaid Project, currently at 20% of our goal and climbing. So, to thank our growing community of supporters, we’re adding a Special Bonus Perk for all supporters at the $25 level and above.

In addition to the existing rewards, all current and future supporters at $25 and up will also receive the eBook edition of my 2014 book, Pursuing the Light – Forty Years of Photography.

This coffee-table fine-art book features a career-spanning retrospective of my landscape photographs over the last four decades, many of which have been selected for juried exhibits and won awards at shows from the Southeast to the Midwest. The eBook features the complete collection of over fifty photographs from the hardcover edition, plus the preface. You can view the book preview and explore many of the images here. And if you haven’t already, we invite you to head over to our crowdfunding site and support the Thebaid Project.

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