In 2004, Christopher Churchill began a personal journey with his vintage Deardorff 8×10 camera, driving thousands of miles across the country to photograph what he describes as “an America that felt divided” and “caught in the middle of a cultural tension.” It was three years after the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the photographer was noticing a palpable intolerance in the country. “Questions of what or who was considered American were very prevalent,” Churchill says. “And religion was in the middle of this debate.” This feeling led him to start asking people about their faith, and the resulting journey is the subject of his Chuchill’s first monograph, American Faith, published this month by Nazraeli Press.
In the introduction of the book, Churchill says, “I had assumed that in order to have faith in your life you must be religious. However, when I would ask individuals I encountered through my travels what they placed their faith in, their responses would be something much more universal and simple than religion.”
Churchill had no specific plan when he set out on the road, but followed an intuitive journey where one subject led to the next. How does someone document a faith or an idea that’s invisible? Churchill began by making formal yet intimate portraits of his subjects. Then he carefully weaved in recorded responses from his subjects to his questions about their beliefs. Thomas Putman of Ponca City, Oklaholma, who was photographed holding his young son, told Churchill, “I believe in God. But everybody has a different belief, and as long as it furthers you in life and gives you a better perspective on the things you do in life, then I don’t really care what you believe in.” The response is one of tolerance mixed with independence that feels intrinsic to American culture.
In the book, portraits are interspersed with landscapes and documentary photographs, adding contemplative spaces. In a photograph of tourists looking out at the majesty of the Grand Canyon, Churchill conjures ideas of American transcendentalism, which holds the idea that one must find themselves thought self reflection, which often takes place alone in nature. An image of such idyll could feel slightly ironic or trite, but not in the style of Churchill’s work. He creates a tableau in soft black and white, where the viewer is gently presented with a space to ponder the majesty themsleves.
Churchill himself was not raised with religion. “I find my faith these days is in my family, the kindness of strangers and or course photography,” he says. “I’ve found that if I can get my brain past the obstacles of any given day and think about time from a larger perspective, there seems to be a path that is perfectly sequential and beyond coincidental. And I find great faith in that.”
American Faithwas published this month by Nazraeli Press.
Christopher Churchill is a photographer based in Massachusetts. See more of his work here.
Pentecostal Service, Jolo, WV 2004Christopher ChurchillSuad Moaw, Brookline, MA, 2006.
In Somalia, we are a collective society. In America, it is more of an individualist society. If you are raised using collective ways and come to America, the whole individualistic society that only does for me and what’s best for me not for others, it becomes difficult to balance the two out.
Muslim countries see America as a giant that’s trying to control the world. You may be a giant, but stay in your corner of the world. That’s how many people – many Muslims – feel. A lot of countries are like, “We don’t need you to come here and tell us how to run our country and how to behave. Let us have our own rules and sort out our own problems. Let us do it ourselves.” That’s where that big hatred of the United States comes from.Christopher ChurchillPower lines leading to the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, NV, 2007.Christopher ChurchillPriestess Sallie Ann Glassman, New Orleans, LA, 2004.
I was initiated in Haiti, in 1995, in a weeklong ceremony. I can’t talk about it too much, but they put you to bed and kind of cook you. You get striped emotionally, psychologically and spiritually of all the things that you use to identify yourself. You can’t tell from the moment you get there whether you are dreaming, having visions, hallucinating or being actually visited by spirits.
There is someone who gets possessed at every ceremony – that’s the point of the ceremony, to let the spirits pass through. You feel thick and dense and things start to slow down and then get really crystal clear – supernaturally clear. Often you feel really elongated, that you are looking down at something. Everything fries out to white and the next thing you know you are someplace else, in a different position and everyone is looking at you funny.
You have no memory of what’s happened you, but what I find is there’s a sense of physical awe in the body and it is as if your electromagnetic frequency has been adjusted and you can feel that something is different. That part of it is an irreplaceable experience.Christopher ChurchillKie, Williston, ND, 2005.Christopher ChurchillPrivate Greg Melendez, Acoma, NM, 2007.
There is nothing Christian about the military. They train you to hate. You go in as the greatest guy in the world and you come out with so much anger. They put you in pits to fight each other. They put you against friends you have known forever and you have to fight them too – until they tap out or until you choke them and they pass out. I had to choke one of my friends out. I choked him so bad his nose busted and wouldn’t stop bleeding. I didn’t want to do it and I cried afterwards. They just called me names.
I was born in Santa Marie, California in 1988. My dad and mom have been in and out of prison my whole life. The only real things around for me were foster homes, group homes and my grandfather – he’s a pastor. I have a wife and her name is Jessica. She was my high school sweetheart, but it hasn’t quite worked out so we’re getting a divorce. I have a seven month old daughter, Keanu. She’s beautiful. My dad kind of pushed my hand toward the military. He told me he never wanted me to end up like him. At first I didn’t really want to go, but I listened to him. I signed up when I was 17 years old. At this point, it has nothing to do with me – it has to do with my daughter. If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t
be here. I just want to support her and make sure she has a good life. I’ll do whatever it takes.Christopher ChurchillThomas Putman And Thomas Putman Jr., Ponca City, OK, 2009.
I’m Thomas Putman, born in Ponca City, Oklahoma. We moved out here about a year ago from Michigan due to the fact that there is work. I didn’t have any work in Michigan and I got a little kid who needs anything and everything I can give him. I had to move out here to do that. I mean, havin’ my kid, it was time to wake up. You know, before that I did anything and everything and it didn’t matter what the consequences were afterward. But now that I have him, those thoughts pop in my head before I make a decision on anything.
I believe in God. But everybody has a different belief, and as long as it furthers you in life and gives you a better perspective on the things you do in life then I don’t really care what you believe in.Christopher ChurchillPotato processing plant, Mount Vernon, WA, 2007.Christopher ChurchillFather Grasham, Plum Island, MA, 2004.Christopher ChurchillGerman exchange student, Castine, ME, 2006.Christopher ChurchillEspresso Church, Lumi Island, WA, 2007.Christopher ChurchillCraig Sergent Newbury, Conway, WA, 2007.Christopher ChurchillGrand Canyon, AZ, 2007.Christopher ChurchillRodney Muhammad and Laycolaion Muhammad, Dorchester, MA, 2006.
Let me say something to you – and this will be mind-boggling: God doesn’t have a religion. Religion is man-made. That’s why there is so much confusion on the earth. The biggest killers are those who claim religion. We kill each other over religion and we say we’re doing God a favor. It’s a lie and it’s hypocritical. God doesn’t have a religion and Islam isn’t a religion. Islam means “peace,” and one who comes in peace calls themselves a Muslim.
Where do you find the temples of the nation of Islam? You find them in the worst neighborhoods where black people live, places where even the police are afraid to go. That’s where you find members of the nation of Islam. Because that’s our mission: to go into the depths of the funk and filth where our people are and try to help clean them up and bring them back onto the road of life.Christopher ChurchillFriends drinking, Ozark National Park, AR, 2009.
It happened December the 9th, dude. And, well, this is us two sittin’ here now. I was 30 years old. It was about 10:30 in the mornin’. We topped that hill, he hit the brakes, we hydroplaned into oncoming traffic, and BAAM by a big SUV – and I mean a big one. They jacked up the truck to get it off my leg, they pulled me out and I started to have a pulse again. Then they hauled ass up to Little Rock. I didn’t know for over a month what happened to me. A whole month in ICU. They told me he had already gone and I figured that was it. They told me I’d never walk again but I don’t know. This is less than a
year now.
It was pretty bad. He died for a little bit. See them holes in his stomach? Shit, they jabbed him back alive.Christopher ChurchillBreakfast room at Days Inn, Demming, NM, 2007.Christopher ChurchillTwo Hudderite girls, Gildford, MT, 2005.Christopher ChurchillFootball game, Grand Rapids, MN, 2005.Christopher ChurchillBellevue Baptist Church, Cordova, TN, 2009.Christopher Churchill
