EXPOSURES
EDITED BY CONOR RISCH
Do you have an interesting photography project? Contact section editor Conor Risch at PDN, 770 Broadway, 8th floor,
New York, N Y 10003 or e-mail conor.risch@nielsen.com
ANTHROPOLOGY
SEEKING FAITH
CHRISTOPHER CHURCHILL’S NEW BOOK
EXPLORES THE MANY MANIFESTATIONS OF
BELIEF IN THE UNITED STATES THROUGH
LARGE-SCALE PORTRAITURE AND LANDSCAPE
PHOTOGRAPHS. BY CONOR RISCH
For his project on faith, Christopher Churchill traveled the country
photographing what he reacted to. Above: “Julie Shuster, Roswell, NM 2007.”
FAITH COMES IN many forms. People believe in deities and religions; in charity work; in their
families and their roles within them; in their countries and in military service; in vocations; in science; in extraterrestrial life. Belief in something greater than oneself, and a desire to be a part of
whatever that something is, forms the core of many individuals’ faith.
Photographer Christopher Churchill’s new book American Faith, recently published by Nazraeli
Press, explores many of the country’s multitudes of beliefs. Combining large-format portraiture,
text excerpts of conversations with subjects and photographs of the American landscape, Churchill
shares with viewers his search for faith in this country during the first decade of the 21st century.
In 2004, spurred by a feeling of frustration at “how religion was being represented in the media”
and by an alarming level of intolerance he perceived in the country, Churchill, who does not participate in any organized religion, set out to travel through all 50 states to “take this capture of religion
and find this commonality that exists between [them],” he says. After working on the project for a
