Spirituality in Photography

“This is a refreshing, creative, and penetrating set of reflections. Richter moves seamlessly between photography and spirituality, helping the reader “reframe” life both literally and metaphorically. It is a deceptively simple book, in which technical knowledge is made accessible and spiritual life made to seem more possible, but never simplistic. I warmly recommend it to any reader willing to become more attentive to what surrounds us – and what lies within us.”

Vernon White

“They say a picture “speaks 1,000 words”! As someone who has researched visual communications, and enjoys sharing pictures via Instagram and other social media platforms, I enjoyed this gentle book. The book offers some tech tips, but is more concerned with the notion of using photography – through whatever camera or phone – to “see” and experience God in different ways. There are various thought prompts, themes for reflection, and activities that should encourage and challenge a wide audience to engage spiritually in something that is now an everyday activity in a digital age.”

Bex Lewis

“Rather than skim, scan, tweet, and snap our lives, Philip Richter invites all of us to slow down, to savour, and to see with fresh eyes. In this delightfully accessible text, each chapter focuses on one aspect of photography, with simple practical tools and a path to spiritual discovery. Curiosity about how we frame or reframe images, how camera phones work, and how light and perspective relate to proportionality leads us in and beyond photography and deeper into our lives and world. Philip Richter gently guides and accompanies the reader in understanding the lenses of truth telling and telling stories. He illumines the importance of knowing the rules, breaking the rules and creating a rule of life in ordinary and everyday lives.’ Odette Lockwood-Stewart, Director, Community Engaged Learning, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California ‘A book to help you use your phone to see, think, pray – and do. As someone who often feels disabled by photographic experts, I found it very enabling.”

David Holgate

“Being aware of how we choose to notice what is around us, and developing our consciousness of that, is so important for a healthy and self-aware spirituality. ‘This is a great little workbook to help you think about how we don’t just do photography, but also our life, through various “lenses”. It would make a great summer, sabbatical or Lent project, and would be a brilliant gift for any teenager or adult with a camera or camera phone and an inquiring mind.’ Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, Area Dean of Durham, and author of The Prayer Experiment Notebook ‘In an age where more people seem to take cameras – in the form of mobile phones – than Bibles to church, Philip Richter gives us permission to integrate these otherwise distracting devices into our spiritual lives. He expands on Dorothea Lange’s insight that “the camera is an instrument to see without a camera” by inviting us to consider photography as a spiritual practice that will teach us to see God and our neighbours – indeed ourselves – in new and authentic ways.”

Roman Williams

“As a Christian, I believe more and more that everything is spiritual and we can see the divine wherever we look. In Spirituality in Photography, Phillip Richter shows us the wonder and beauty of the divine in all things, and how by looking at the world around us and capturing it in photography, we can catch a glimmer of the true beauty and majesty of God.”

James Prescott