Untitled 1991

Thomas Roma made this photograph, sometime after 1950, with a camera and film, in what seems to be a Black church. The lighting is moody, the tones sliding between light and dark. I can imagine Roma, an outsider, finding his way into this space, maybe welcomed, maybe not, but compelled to capture this moment. Look at the faces, each a study in concentration and emotion. The woman at the center, singing, her hand holding a candle. And then there's the young woman in the foreground, her gaze distant and almost melancholic. They are looking at something. Something beyond. There’s a history of photographers drawn to religious spaces, like Garry Winogrand with his photographs of congregations, or James Van Der Zee’s portraits of the Harlem Renaissance. It's almost like they are looking to capture not just the people, but the intangible something that binds them. Ultimately, I think that photography is a process of continual exchange across time, with artists building on one another's work. The best photographs embrace ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations. It's this element of uncertainty that makes looking so compelling.