Photography In Celebration

How do you make the finite appear as the infinite? If you are Justinian you build a dome in a cathedral larger than the world has ever seen and raise it to the heavens. Upon seeing his dome completed, Justinian cried, “Solomon, I have surpassed you”. Some early visitors to the church of divine wisdom thought that they were looking literally at the vault of heaven.

Standing within the Ayya Sophia, the huge interior space feels dense with age and reverence. The walls are heavy, dark and neglected. Yet there is light. Light for the eye and for the heart. There is greatness here. Not the greatness of history, but of space. Space made sacred by the walls that circumscribe it. Space made beautiful by the intake of thousands of breaths that have paused within it, amazed.