The Portrait of Faith in Greece

 Greece is a small country with a rich History. It has a small population (ten million), and large land and sea borders. Its human geography consists mainly of Greeks, but also a percentage of immigrants and refugees. In Greece, although religious homogeneity prevails (90% of Greeks declare themselves Orthodox Christians), there is a plurality of religious communities based on the three monotheistic religions –Christianity, Judaism, Islam– which is of ethnographic and anthropological interest. All these people live in the same country and perform their religious duties, sometimes ignoring each other and sometimes living side by side. The link that binds them all together is Faith.

In every religion there is a fundamental, recurring, multifaceted theme: the power of Faith to heal, to purify trauma, to honor the dead, to express the mystery and beauty of life. Over the centuries, religions have mirrored each other. They have borrowed gestures, hymns, customs and even saints from each other. There have always been many religions, and they have always divided people. But Faith is one. So is humanity. God is one and love is one. But to truly believe, the path is not only intellectual, it is even more internal and goes through the heart. For in order to truly love God and yourself, it is imperative that you love thy neighbor –even your enemy.

This photographic work focuses on the universality of faith through love for your neighbor and acceptance of diversity. It consists mainly of portraits, landscapes and details of religious objects. The portraits form the connective tissue of the work and are taken in places of worship in Greece, in intimate interiors, but also in the wider urban environment. The Greek, the immigrant or the refugee are united by Faith, because the immateriality of Faith is illuminated, photographed and synthesized, where people, land and love “become one flesh”.