Sacred Spaces.
April 5, 2015From the Quonset hut churches of the Yukon, built out of scrap left over from the construction of the Alaska Highway, to the Igloo churches of the Far North and the carefully preserved churches of the Sahtu region’s tiny, isolated Dene communities, the North’s places of worship are ambiguous symbols of both faith and colonization, spirituality and repression. They face aging, shrinking congregations, a scarcity of clergy, and history that can be both troubling and inspiring. And yet they are still landmarks in every community, both visually and socially.
Over the last couple of years I have traveled across the North, capturing these structures at every opportunity, standing in chilly aisles so cold you can see your breath, watching as congregations with absent clergy held their own services in their native tongue, and documenting the beauty of these fragile, consecrated spaces as best I can.
This is an on going project and I plan on continuing to document these amazing spaces across the North