Worship

TRAILS OF FAITH (‘worship’) in the Romanesque churches of Cologne

Cologne’s 12 large Romanesque churches are a unique architectural ensemble in a very small urban space that has been honoured many times over the centuries.

As an architect and photographer, I embarked on a journey into their interiors when working on this series. In doing so, I deliberately broke away from the usual art and architecture documentaries.

Instead, I have placed at the centre of my photographs the traces that people have left behind in the churches - often over centuries and mostly unconsciously. These are silent testimonies of worship, religiosity, Christian rituals or even everyday church life, which are revealed neither in the architecture of the church nor in the service, but in the details.

Apart from the exterior shots, the photographs were all taken between April and June 2013. My project was accompanied artistically by Karl von Westerholt and organisationally by Amelie Wangrin as part of a course at the VHS Cologne. I was inspired by an exhibition by Friederike von Rauch at the Forum für Fotografie entitled ‘Sleeping Beauties’.

I summarised the work in a self-published book.