Art Commission: Repentance

A friend from our church, All Souls Charlottesville, contacted me a few weeks ago about possibly commissioning me to do some photography for the season of Lent.  I jumped at the chance because I love the opportunity to push my creativity a bit and do something out of the norm.  After agreeing to the project, though, I quickly drew an artistic blank!  Sarah and I spend most of our time photographing bright and cheerful weddings and couples happily in love.  I don't really get around to photographing themes of repentance that this commission would require.  After some brainstorming and thought about the idea of repentance, I got a picture in my head of what I hoped to create.  The only remaining obstacle was finding a diverse, ready and willing group of people willing to model for me! Thankfully, when I pitched the idea to some friends, they were on board even though I gave them a purposefully vague description of what I was going for and what I wanted them to do.  I had hoped to catch them a bit off guard and use the limited amount of time I had with them to capture some thought-provoking, dramatic images that might personalize the act of repentance that this season brings out of those who follow Jesus.

I am thrilled with how they turned out and I had such a great time in the process of creating these portraits from planning to prints.  I was only asked to provide three prints which are displayed at The Garden where All Souls meets from today through Easter.  I wanted to share a few more of my favorites, though.  I hope you enjoy them.

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