Through the religions
Alfred Yaghobzadeh
Sipa Press
My family is Christian and from Iran. My father is Armenian and my mother Assyrian, their rites reach back to the time when Christianity was in its infancy. The fall of the Berlin Wall has led to a revival of religious practice in Eastern Europe. Perhaps it is Mass on Sunday with its strong smell of incense that gave me the idea of ‘The Rebirth of Christ - 2000 years on’. In 1989 I started my project on Christianity in Eastern Europe.
Photo by photo, I discovered that, 40 years on, history was rekindling a fervour that had lain dormant. Couples sealed their marriages before the altar, parents baptised their near-adult children, Catholics awaiting the return of their churches took communion and made confession on park benches: religion was out in the open.
My first journey showed me that my instinct about Christianity had been right. In ten years I have traveled across 25 countries.
Preview
Jerusalem, a strange and bewitching city of passion and obsession, where 17 different denominations compete for the ancient flagstones of the Holy Sepulchre; from the Ethiopians who pray as they bang their tambourins on the roof, to the byzantine rites relegated to the very depths of the church. Their chants mingle and their prayers rise into a gentle cacophony of tongues.
The Philippinos offer the Stations of the Cross 'live': men and women are flagellated, crucified, the nails of Calvary must be at least 11 centimetres long. In Spain - no need to travel across the world - in the middle of Seville you can see astonishing processions in medieval costume at daybreak.
Ethiopia was a revelation: its priests draped in sumptuous brocade, their prayers delivered under a merciless sun that rendered even the poorest villages beautiful. Cuba was no less fascinating, more than ever awash in a sea of emotions as islanders prepared for the Pope's blessings.
I have striven to convey as best I could this overflow of lands, people and expressions, of moments I have long laid in wait for, and other that fell into my lap, as a godsend.
