Easter Week Photo Series
EASTER IN THE ORDINARY
By: Amanda Burke & Laura Cheng
In a world with as much hustle and bustle as the one we live in today, there are precious few moments that capture our gaze and bring us to a place of stillness & reflection. It’s only with great intention that we are able to find the mindfulness to set aside a moment to just be, and be with God.
Holy Week is a moment that calls us to that place of reflection and for us, both creating and appreciating art are very meditative practices. We wanted to approach Holy Week in this way, and the process of ideating and creating a photo series was a practice that allowed us to meditate on the Easter story over several weeks. We’d love to take you through some of the symbols and ideas captured in this series in hopes that it would bring you to a place of seeing the work and glory of God reflected in His work on the cross.
The first image, Palms, is based on the passage in John 12 that recounts Jesus’ final triumphal entry into Jerusalem. When brainstorming the best image to represent this passage, there was no better symbol than the palms themselves. This symbol not only reminds modern day Christians of the Sunday before Easter, but also ties a thread to the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem. In the other gospel accounts, the crowd was described as laying their clothes and palm leaves on the ground. We wanted to capture this very moment by laying the palms in dirt. This act was a sign of reverence and recognition to Jesus as King. As you examine this image, our prayer is that you are reminded of this simple impactful truth.
The second image is titled Supper and flows from Matthew 26:26-29 where Jesus has his Last Supper with his disciples. Of course, for any of us that practice communion, the bread and wine were important symbols that Jesus used to foretell his coming crucifixion and the sacrifice he’d make that would bring us, sinners, to be reconciled with God. It was important to us to show the wine being spilled, and the bread torn apart to allude to the horrific bodily experience he would have on the cross. The backdrop of a wooden table points to his hanging on a wooden cross, and yet the richness of the colors of the golden cloth juxtaposes the glory of God incarnate humbling himself to the death of a common criminal.
The third image is titled Gethsemane and was drawn from Matthew 26:36-46 where Jesus goes to the garden of Gethsemane with his disciples before the incident he knows is to come. Over the course of the night he asks his companions to pray with him as he experiences great anguish and yet they keep falling asleep. In this image, we wanted to capture his emotional turmoil, reflected in the stormy sky, and his upward gaze demonstrates his communication with God, pleading for another way. We shot a person sitting alone because we wanted to show the loneliness he must have felt as his companions were sleeping, accenting the dark blues of the sky to represent the melancholy and dread of the moment.
The fourth image titled Crucified draws inspiration from the account of Jesus Crucifixion found in Matthew 26:26-29. Unlike the previous images, we decided to represent this passage more symbolically. The crimson rose lying in the dirt with a fallen petal is meant to represent the body of Christ slain for our sins. The color red is meant to convey a direct correlation to the blood spilled. The thorns on the stem are meant to signify the crown of thorns. We chose to purposely keep this image in dark tones to convey a feeling of despair. On Crucifixion day, the Roman and Jewish authorities believed they had won. For the disciples, all hope seemed lost but there was a greater victory taking place.
The fifth image titled In the Waiting is meant to represent the time between death and resurrection. We drew inspiration from the passage found in Luke 24:1 where it states the women had prepared spices to take to the tomb. We chose to use warm tones to represent the morning of resurrection. We imagine the women would have set aside spices and oils in jars to prepare for the traditional burial procedures. The disciples continued in their standard routines not aware of the great joy to come.
The last image is titled Alive and draws from Matthew 28:1-10. In this photograph, we wanted to capture the hope and bright future that we have to look forward to as a result of the completed work of Jesus’ death & resurrection. The tear in the cloth represents the temple curtain that tore upon Jesus’ death that now gives us access to approach God, because our sins have been forgiven. The sun peeks through the cloth to show the future hope we have in an eternity with God. And the purple color of the cloth represents the royalty or highness of God.