As I stood outside the entrance at St. John the Evangelist, Elkstone in Gloucestershire - I could sense that there was something special inside.
The tympanum looked as though it had been hot wired to the ground - buzzing with vitality, exploding with chevrons and grasping beakheads.
Even with such high expectations, it’s wasteful to hurry the opening of a church door.
Firstly, there's the furrowed and faceted touch of the metal handle, and then the twisting clicket of the latch. Then, upon opening - an infusion of sorts - a compote of what I can only describe as an ecclesiastical biota: the smell of ancient timbers, a transformation in light levels, the muted soundscape and, as in the church at Elkstone, a coralle of golden light embellished with dust motes, enlivened by the opening of the door.
First view brought an instant connection.
Like a divining rod, the geometry dowsed the way - the converging timbers led the eye from the de-saturated nave into a golden lattice of Romanesque arches.
The feeling was as if the correspondence between myself, the camera and this place had summoned up a treasure hoard, sparkling in its intensity, mesmerising in its engagement and joyous in its discovery.
From that moment on, I knew what I had to do, where I was needed, what combination of light, line and void would satiate the camera’s eye.
Andy Marshall
is an architectural and interiors photographer based in the UK.
Link to: Storytelling Matters
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