Contrast, in photography, refers to the difference in brightness or color or focus between different parts of an image and adds depth and texture. There is tonal contrast, which involves the interplay of highlights and shadows, and color contrast, which highlights between different hues. The effective use of contrast can transform an ordinary snapshot into a striking photograph that grabs the viewer’s attention and conveys powerful emotions.
At Saint Benedict Parish I am asked to take photographs of children being presented for confirmation and first communion. What I try to do is to compose and take a photograph of the child’s face at the moment in the Liturgy when the Holy Spirit descends upon the child. If the interplay of the various contrasts tonal, colour and focus synchronize with the absolute holiness of that moment the photograph has captured something truly profound. I have had parents contact me and tell me that the moment they opened the email containing their child’s photo they have immediately burst into tears! The innocence and purity of the look on their own child’s face has become for them an icon of the love of God. They have the precious image of their child accepting God’s calling on their life.
In his commentary on the calling of Israel, in Deuteronomy 7:6 (“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”), German theologian Gerhard Lohfink states the following:
[There are] two grounds for Israel being a holy people. First, there is the electing love of God, who chose Israel from all nations to be his own people. But, in the second place, Israel’s holiness also depends on whether it really lives in accordance with the social order which God has given it, a social order which stands in sharp contrast with those of all other nations.
For Lohfink, as Christians we are not called to simply be a countercultural society, that just opposes the dominant culture at every turn. Rather, we are also called to be a contrasting society where we are attentive not only to what we do, but also to how we do it. We need to develop a sanctified situational awareness. Holiness has both countercultural and contrasting elements.
In the new covenant we are the new Israel, in 1 Peter 2:9, Peter echoes the call from Deuteronomy and applies it to us: “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” (King James Version)
As an example of our “peculiarity” consider that although we are unique persons created in the image of God, our primary identity, as suggested to us by the current secular culture, is not solely derived from our own personal story, but from our story as being part of the bigger story of God’s gathering and reconciling work. Because of this, like everyone else our mortal lives have an end, but our lives also have a point!
Like the process of composing the first communion photographs, both in the way that we personally and as a church choose to combine the contrasting elements of our lives can help make manifest the holiness of God. We can become beacons of light in a darkened world.
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Adele's Photography
