Eyes of God(dess)

I would like to start off this post with saying, I am not a religious person.

If you've leafed through my galleries, you have probably come across my "blue girl." This 2015 shoot, entitled Eyes of God(dess), was inspired by cover art to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

This series, inspired by The Great Gatsby, challenges modern perspectives on the gender of the Christian God. In biblical verse, God is described exclusively with masculine pronouns, though God is not technically a man. The Catholic Church’s condemnation of the sacred feminine, and blatant misogyny causes a masculine name tag to be forcibly stitched to a truly androgynous spirit. Inspired by the cover art of The Great Gatsby which features feminine blue eyes and red lips over a deep blue background, I set out to praise the image of feminine God. In The Great Gatsby, the fictional optometrist Dr. TJ Eckleburg’s eyes are painted on a large billboard and are described to be the eyes of God, forever watching over the sin below.

Entitled The Eyes of God(dess), this series presents Christians with a female God- one with strength, dignity and ferocity in her eyes. The focus of this series lies in the powerful gaze of Goddess. Even in larger frame shots that include more than solely Her eyes, the viewer is drawn into the intensity of her stare. Although most of the images use light to convey a powerful presence, there are a few in which Goddess is muted; her mouth is covered and bound by her scarf, which features the faces of her female followers. These photographs depict the silencing of femininity in the modern Catholic Church.

I have met God. She is blue.

#photo