Cathedrals at Dawn

Yesterday I went to see a rather wonderful exhibition of photographs of cathedrals by the late Peter Marlow. It has been touring England's cathedrals, and is currently on show in the north quire aisle of Lichfield.
Marlow had been commissioned in 2008 to photograph half a dozen English cathedrals – including Lichfield – for a set of stamps, and the experience inspired him to carry on and photograph every Anglican cathedral in England over the next three years. Each photograph was taken with the camera pointing East, and – what makes them so distinctive – in the light of dawn, with no artificial lighting whatsoever. Marlow did this partly as a way of following in the footsteps of earlier church photographers, who worked of necessity in available light, often using pinhole cameras and very long exposures. Marlow of course was employing much more advanced technology, and colour film, but his images have a similar quality of numinous stillness and intensity. The dim religious light of dawn turns out to be wonderfully radiant, with an ethereal quality that makes each cathedral look almost as if it is bathed in the light of heaven rather than earth. Indeed, cathedrals I knew quite well often looked so transformed that I hardly recognised them, but among those I had no difficulty identifying were Wells (above) and of course Lichfield (below). I've never been entirely sure photography is truly an 'art form', but Marlow's beautiful photographs certainly demonstrate that there are things, wonderful things, that only photography can do.