Wanderer Photography

Trying to be agile, to make small incremental updates rather than big blog posts. See – software engineering applied to real life 🙂

Back to the story. After getting some well deserved sleep on Friday, on Saturday we headed out to visit the upper Manhattan and other parts of the town. Apparently, I was not in a very picture-taking mood on that day with the exception of these two churches: Riverside Church and Cathedral church of St. John the Divine. And I know that New York is not best known for these, but I like churches.

 

And these churches are interesting for me because they look like some of the oldest pieces still standing of the city, while they are still pretty new – late 19th and early 20th century.

 

And even though the walls are pretty empty on the inside, their greatness and majesty make me appreciate them.

Walking a bit further to the front of the church gives us a better view of the altar.

And even “behind” the altar.

And while I appreciated the main halls a lot, the side rooms were pretty … creepy. I understand that they are exhibition halls, but… does that really belong in a church? And the answer is yes – it does. Since this is America, the land of the free, everyone is free to make a contribution to their religion. And since the coasts are more diversified in terms of religious choices, the churches start running out of money – so, maintaining the church becomes a business that needs to be attended like one – with entrance fees, reprofiling towards gallery exhibitions in some of the rooms etc.

 

I found that room pretty creepy. It looked like some small-Satan-s marching with a dog in front, willing to stop them. “Art”.

 

The shadow of the cross is what caught my eye in this picture.

The entrance / exit was very impressive and the whole church had an European flavor to it.

 

Moving on to the second church… View from the middle towards the altar.

 

And towards the entrance.

 

I like the symmetry of the buildings a lot and that is most likely what picks my brain every time.

Over and out for tonight.

/cd