OBSERVANCE — JAMES ESTRIN

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Striving to encounter transcendence is integral to being human.

Through my work as a photographer at the New York Times, I have documented hundreds of services at synagogues, mosques, Buddhist and Hindu temples and churches of every kind. I have witnessed people attaining heightened  experiences in countless ways. I have observed people having profound spiritual revelations on coastal shorelines, in prison, at the kitchen table and through art and music.

While religious rituals themselves are visually lush, spiritual experience is interior and hidden. The  challenge for me is capturing the essence of an invisible occurrence in a visible image.