PILGRIM IMAGES IN ART

Synagogue Doors

My first glimpse of these doors came as I as I was walking with a small group in search of a Jewish cemetery in Kishnev, Moldova. As the doors flashed upon my peripheral vision I soon found myself away from the group, set upon the photographer’s quest to find and capture the mystery I had just seen. Peering over fences, enduring verbal chastisement from an elderly Russian woman (until I paid her) entering small hidden doors that led to alleyways and shrouded paths, I discovered in full form what I had only previously glimpsed. There I stood alone, enwrapped in a moment of mystery and wonder. Before me was a scene ethereal and beyond time: not the mere doors but an entire synagogue, standing in the ruins left by a long-ago bomb. It seemed to be waiting too, for me, holding its breath, waiting to be found. Waiting for someone to tell its story.

Hidden and forgotten, only waiting to be found
Burned by hatred past, yet adorned in fresh vines;
Scarred, yet strong as steel; the broken windows
Yielding only a clear view;
Tightly closed, only to be opened.

Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O everlasting doors,
That the King of Glory may come in!

By Dave Fitzpatrick

WE WELCOME YOU TO PILGRIM IMAGES IN ART

David Fitzpatrick as pastor, speaker, author, and life coach, has dedicated much of his life to the pursuit of meaning, purpose, and understanding. He is a long time Franklin resident whose work has incorporated extensive travel. It was in 1995, during a year-long stay in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with his wife and three children that he began to capture in black and white images some of these simple expressions of the spirit.

They are gathered from such diverse places as the ruins of churches in Ireland, the cemetery of Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg, an abandoned synagogue in Moldova, Christ Church in Jerusalem, as well as the statuary of Prague and Vienna. Since then he has expanded his black and white portfolio to include scenes of serenity from the wilderness of Cape Breton and vignettes of light and color from mornings in the gardens of Lindisfarne, the Fitzpatrick family home created as a spiritual sanctuary.

In the intention of the photographer, the force of Pilgrim Images is not only in the deep meaning of the photograph, but also in the depth of the beholder that is given expression through these scenes. These images serve to stir the deep worth within the soul, and call us upward.