Faces of Christianity: A Photographic Journey [ハードカバー]

... through different manifestations of the Christian religion, told in almost two hundred photographs and covering sixteen countries. The photographs are organized by geographical location, starting with Jerusalem and ending with Brazil. Other stops include: Egypt, Sudan, Mali, South Africa, United States, France, Ireland, Spain, Serbia, Russia, South Korea, Philippines, Cuba, and Mexico. The photographs are superbly reproduced, with great tonal range and on excellent paper. About 75% of them spread on two pages, but the binding allows each photograph to lay flat. The text at the end of the book is a travelogue filled with rhetorical questions about the events Abbas witnesses.

The previous reviews do not do justice to this book and to Abbas's work. One reviewer mentioned that the project is unfinished since it only covers certain areas, which is ridiculous. The title of the book is "Faces of Christianity" not "The Faces..." or "All Faces...". Abbas never intended to do a comprehensive documentation of Christianity. Another dubious comment is that Abbas's views are subjective. Can photography be otherwise? Another reviewer claims that the book does not offer a "faithful depiction" of Christianity. Faithful according to whom? Is there a real Christianity and a less real one? One of the main points of the book is precisely that there is no one Christianity. There are only contextual manifestations, only "sects"; every now and then, some dream of becoming empires. It's somehow ironic, but by accusing Abbas that he only focuses on the "unusual", the previous review only confirms the author's fear regarding religion: since everyone considers that their religion as the true one (and thus all others must be false) how can we find common ground? As Abbas looks for threads that link these different manifestations of Christianity, particularly compassion, he also finds conflict, poverty, and ignorance.

Make no mistake: this book does express a point of view, but one worth pondering about. The book is not the result of uninformed opinion; it is a personal journey through a world that does not make too much sense to the author - an author whose relationship with god (any god) is purely "professional". Abbas tries to understand it through photography, and what he finds are not answers, but more questions. Not only is the documentary and artistic value of these photographs inestimable, but the entire project is intellectually challenging.

Some photos are memorable and give honour to the talented photographer but there does not seem to be any integrity at all, the book is nothing more than a collection of photographic notes taken in different lands. A number of images have nothing to do with christianity at all. The camera is often more excited about sects and cults. Very subjective views and written statements, too shallow for such a serious subject. A project like this should take a lifetime to complete...

There are some marvelous pictures in this book. The book is large and beautifully printed. It has the weight of talent , time and subject material that makes it a worthy item to have in one's photo collection. I would, however, make an important caveat for those who are looking for a faithful depiction of the faces of Christianity as it exists around the world. They will not find it in this book. It is more of an exploration of "Christianity", and the areas of politics, culture and spirituality that have grown up around it, oftentimes in a way that the author jarringly admits has little to do with actual Christian faith. This leaves the viewer wondering if the unusual or the extreme depicted are Christian or if they just happened to make for interesting pictures. That struck me as disingenous. Adding to the confusion were pictures of Jews, Muslims, Russian Communists, etc.. Personally, after viewing some of the sensational imagery of Santeria in Cuba (which Abbas himself in the book notes acknowledges is a "cult"), I had to wonder if the Christian faith as expressed around the world was being given true justice, which one would expect after five years. The peculiar introduction seems to indicate that a desire to "even the score" after his Islam project was a consideration at work. In the end, I see the book as a fascinating personal project in which a photographer was exploring his own ideas about a world religion, but in the end offered up confusing notions of the faith to match the confused notions of some he was photographing. On a purely visual level, however, it is stunning.