Elaine Bezold

University of Missouri

These photographs are taken from a collection of work created over the last five months of my undergraduate career. I am a Missouri resident and was raised with a very loose view of spirituality. I have, however, grown to see the ways in which Midwestern Christianity creates a social landscape in Missouri. My photographs investigate sectarian Christian worship and the role of denominational divisions in the construction of identity. I shoot with a medium format film on a 1969 Rolleiflex. In the dimly lit settings of most churches, I am forced to slow down my photographic practice. This, in turn, requires me to engage with individual subjects intimately in a portrait-making process.