Joel Davidson
For anyone who wonders where an open-minded, ecumenical, tolerant appreciation of the world's variety of religious experience has gone, here are the extraordinary documentary photography of Joel Davidson. Working in both black and white and color, Davidson captures the human face of religious rituals, east, west, north and south, with consummate craft and deepest respect. Since 1995, he has traveled a large fraction of the world with his cameras in hand and has assembled a giant catalog of gorgeous images that somehow illustrate both how large and how small the world is.
The well-known quote, "Variety is the spice of life," is the underlying theme of my work in A Common Thread. Each image displays some form of spiritual expression. The clothing choices vary and the customary rituals are distinct but the connection to each group's spirituality is the common thread. We are all part of humanity. Our eclectic styles of expression contribute to the "spice" that makes life together fascinating.
"I find an interesting location with "good" light and wait for something to hapen in the scene. I can hang out in one location for hours. Patience is an important component in capturing interesting street images. I judge am image first by its impact. Does it evoke an intense emotion that draws a view in or is it a "walk by" image? "