Kerk, kerkhof en gebedsruimte (oratoire) in Saint-Jean-du-Doigt 1901

This sepia toned photograph of a church, graveyard, and oratory in Saint-Jean-du-Doigt was taken by Delizy. I like how the architecture is so sharp and clear and solid, but how the composition of the photo is not. The way the light falls makes the structures seem almost flimsy. It's like the photograph has captured the transience of life, especially appropriate given the graveyard. I wonder if Delizy was thinking about the way that light can reveal and conceal. The way it can make things seem more or less real than they are. The photo creates a kind of tension between the solid church and the ethereal light, and a sense of place between the graveyard and the oratory. Maybe Delizy was trying to capture something about the nature of faith, the way it can be both solid and ethereal, both grounded in the world and reaching for something beyond.