For centuries, church buildings have been a mainstay feature of villages, towns, cities and rural areas throughout Europe. From luxurious and majestic cathedrals to quaint country chapels, many places in Europe are home to religious sanctuaries. Today, some of the religious buildings are maintained in pristine shape, regarded as national treasures, while others meet a rather different handling. Whether on a busy city corner or being taken over by nature somewhere in the countryside, there are many religious buildings slowly getting lost to time and fading from collective memories.
100 photos show the decline of the Church in Italy
Church buildings have been a mainstay feature throughout Europe for centuries. From quaint country chapels to luxurious and majestic cathedrals, the “Old World” is home or has been home to hundreds of churches. Some of them are maintained in pristine shape, highly regarded as national treasures, while others meet a rather different ending, being left in the hands of time and its relentless way of decaying things. Italy is a perfect example of a country that, although greatly valuing its history, architecture, culture, and connection with the Church as an institution, still features its share of abandoned churches. In this post, you will find 100 photos of abandoned churches and chapels that I photographed throughout Italy.
How I shot these vertical panoramic images in the world’s most stunning churches and cathedrals
Vertical Churches of the World is a project that began in 2012 in New York. It’s been ongoing since then and the project has been featured by numerous news agencies, blogs and articles from around the globe (including here on DIYP). I felt it was now time to put some of the images into a book, which you can find here, and I thought I’d put this article together to explain a little about how I create them.
When entering a church, mostly in the Gothic style because of the lengthy nave, try and find the center of the aisle. If you are lucky enough to be able to use a tripod to shoot, set up a bit closer to the front of the church’s altar and try and capture the dome above the altar. If you are shooting free-hand, find the same spot closer to the altar. Your goal is to capture in a panorama the whole church vertically from the altar to the narthex (the back of the church) while shooting the ceiling along the way.
Russian Drone pilot’s footage goes viral after capturing an “active” couple at the top of a church steeple (maybe NSFW)
Something tells me the owner of this drone was not quite expecting to capture what he saw when he reviewed the footage from this flight.
While filming a local church at the city of Torzhok, in the Tver Oblast region in Russia, the drone’s camera accidentally caught a couple having sex in the church’s steeple.
The Perfect Perspective for Photographing Churches
Anybody who has visited one of the grandiose churches or cathedrals has come across this problem; how do you photograph the sheer size and magnificence of this holy architecture?
If you capture the chancel, you miss out on the ceiling murals. Try photographing the murals and you’ll probably be giving up on most of the stained glass.
One way to capture as much as possible would be a 360-degree panorama but that will result in a very distorted imaged with some of the most impressive features of the building – the ceiling, murals and unique lighting fixtures, left out of the frame.
Obviously such detail-filled gargantuan structures require an out-of-the-box solution, and this is where travel photographer Richard Silver (previously) and his vertical panoramas come into play.
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