The first meeting I contacted was Wellesley Friends Meeting. It is close to my home, so I thought I could go back if I made some photographic mistakes. And of course, I did. The Meetinghouse was open and available to me, which I very much appreciated. I have been back three times. This has been great practice for me. In most Meetinghouses, I will get one chance to get the pictures right, so Wellesley was a photographic luxury.
I love this Meetinghouse and have been there several times in the past, for committees and for Junior Yearly Meeting retreats. Any young person who has attended youth retreats will have, I am sure, fond memories of this large and welcoming Meetinghouse. The Meetinghouse is large, with a room that was added on as a meetingroom in 1992. The Meetingroom is large, light, and of course, quiet. The benches are white, the rug a beautiful rose color. In this room, there are 11 windows, 2 exit doors which are mostly glass, and 2 entrance doors. In a vaulted ceiling, there are more windows: 3 square windows, and also 9 small rectangular windows set in where the ceiling meets the wall. Lots of light here.
Any photographer will tell you, it's all about the light. In this Meetinghouse Project, that is even more true. "Light" is a metaphor for so much in Quakerism. The Inner Light, Divine Light, seeking the Light, following the Light, the children's song with "this little Light of mine" are just a few of the common phrases in Quaker language. Light appears everywhere in Quakerism. James Turrell, Quaker architect, was quoted in Friends Journal (February, 2014) as saying he was taught that "as you sat in Quaker silence, you were to go inside to greet the light". All Quakers know something about the Light.
Lastly, I would like to add a few more comments about about my blog. Comments are welcome. All comments: about the project, about the pictures, about photography, about Quakerism. I have no doubt that I will get some facts wrong and will need to be gently righted by some readers. And lastly, in this blog, the pictures I use will be illustrative or documentary pictures. Pictures that may work for my final collection will not appear until the end. I will need to see all the pictures together as a unit to make final editing choices about the content and style of the pictures that will appear in the final collection.
Wellesley Meetinghouse