The annual blessing of the fleet in Dulac, Louisiana. The event celebrates the tradition of those families who earn their living as shrimpers, and centers around prayers for a safe and bountiful brown shrimp season.

Read the article by Nikki Buskey.

Thomas Dardar, 12, of Houma takes the cross from his father during the “Walk of the Cross,” on Good Friday in Dulac.
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Thomas Dardar, 12, of Houma takes the cross from his father during the “Walk of the Cross,” on Good Friday in Dulac.

I’m spending more time with the Apostolic Revival Church here in Houma. Yesterday the Chalmette-based group went to the Family Dollar/liquor-store shopping center. It’s not exactly a place where I try to spend a lot of time, but they showed no intimidation from an audience that wasn’t outwardly receptive to their message. Passing out Bibles and flyers, the group sowed the seeds of what they hope will be a growing community.

Yes, that is Newt Gingrich helping force feed an Etch A Sketch to a plastic alligator. Enjoy. I was always more of a magna doodle man. See more photos of the media madhouse at houmatoday.com.
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Yes, that is Newt Gingrich helping force feed an Etch A Sketch to a plastic alligator. Enjoy. I was always more of a magna doodle man.

See more photos of the media madhouse at houmatoday.com.

My weekend with Pastor Mike Kenney of the Apostolic Revival Church in Houma.

Elder Margie Scott of Beacon Light Baptist Church leans over in prayer during the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the Dumas Auditorium on Monday in Houma.
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Elder Margie Scott of Beacon Light Baptist Church leans over in prayer during the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the Dumas Auditorium on Monday in Houma.

Prayer over graduates at Nicholls State University.
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Prayer over graduates at Nicholls State University.

St. Matthew’s Episcopal kindergarteners perform in the school’s annual Christmas pageant at Grace Lutheran Church. St. Matthew’s is using the Houma church after a November 2010 fire destroyed its own. 

Frankie Ostello of Attenhofer’s Stained Glass, inspects the detailing on the face of Jesus before disassembling his scaffolding. The new stained glass window at Grace Lutheran Church replaces the one that was destroyed over three years ago in 2008’s Hurricane Gustav.
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Frankie Ostello of Attenhofer’s Stained Glass, inspects the detailing on the face of Jesus before disassembling his scaffolding. The new stained glass window at Grace Lutheran Church replaces the one that was destroyed over three years ago in 2008’s Hurricane Gustav.

From the time I first arrived in North Carolina, I’ve heard how important religion is to people here. On this day, I wanted to start a project that I’ve had floating around in my head, where essentially I would go to a different church every Sunday, and photograph a worship service. When I’m out looking for features, this would allow me to meet people outside of my usual social routine, and additionally provide me with better access to what’s “important” to those living here. As an atheist, I’ve admittedly grown more uncomfortable photographing in openly religious situations. It’s not like I feel emotional towards anything that is said, or that I feel uncomfortable about approaching people. I just have a bad habit of overthinking sometimes, and when a sermon uses faux-mathematical principles to “scientifically” explain the existence of the One True God, part of me wants to respond with something. But this isn’t my place, and I just end up standing there, thinking about how dumb I am for being unable to lift my own camera. It isn’t about the photographer! It isn’t about you! The above service, held in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., was not the one I intended on going to. I cancelled my outing to the original church of my choice, and instead had to go hunting for a billboard erected by a minister who wanted to respond to billboards erected in the north by a group of American Atheists. I had something to say here about “preaching to the choir,” but I got in my car and drove around for what ended up totaling over an hour in search of this billboard. I realized on my second pass of I-95 that the billboard still had a black tarp over it, with the bright orange “Adult Sex Shop” billboard trailing only a hundred yards later. Sorry folks, your drive by proselytizing will have to wait a few more days. But anyways, I eventually got back to work, and this photograph above is of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World District Mass Choir during the church service held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Destiny New World Outreach of Mt. Carmel Church. The Fayetteville Cumberland County Ministerial Council sponsored this worship service, entitled “Better Together,” and was participated in by parishioners of Heal the Land Outreach Ministries and Great Emmanuel Temple of Grace. To reiterate, I don’t have a problem with organized religion. One of my primary conscious motivations in undertaking a “church a week” type project is finding out more about what is behind religious communities. In a world where the interpersonal network is broken down over a series of wires and binary signals, I have deep respect for anything that can pull together people from different backgrounds and purposes. But please, don’t use science to try and prove the existence of God. It just takes all the fun out of faith. More of my photographs here.
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From the time I first arrived in North Carolina, I’ve heard how important religion is to people here. On this day, I wanted to start a project that I’ve had floating around in my head, where essentially I would go to a different church every Sunday, and photograph a worship service. When I’m out looking for features, this would allow me to meet people outside of my usual social routine, and additionally provide me with better access to what’s “important” to those living here.

As an atheist, I’ve admittedly grown more uncomfortable photographing in openly religious situations. It’s not like I feel emotional towards anything that is said, or that I feel uncomfortable about approaching people. I just have a bad habit of overthinking sometimes, and when a sermon uses faux-mathematical principles to “scientifically” explain the existence of the One True God, part of me wants to respond with something.

But this isn’t my place, and I just end up standing there, thinking about how dumb I am for being unable to lift my own camera. It isn’t about the photographer! It isn’t about you!

The above service, held in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., was not the one I intended on going to. I cancelled my outing to the original church of my choice, and instead had to go hunting for a billboard erected by a minister who wanted to respond to billboards erected in the north by a group of American Atheists.

I had something to say here about “preaching to the choir,” but I got in my car and drove around for what ended up totaling over an hour in search of this billboard. I realized on my second pass of I-95 that the billboard still had a black tarp over it, with the bright orange “Adult Sex Shop” billboard trailing only a hundred yards later. Sorry folks, your drive by proselytizing will have to wait a few more days.

But anyways, I eventually got back to work, and this photograph above is of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World District Mass Choir during the church service held in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Destiny New World Outreach of Mt. Carmel Church. The Fayetteville Cumberland County Ministerial Council sponsored this worship service, entitled “Better Together,” and was participated in by parishioners of Heal the Land Outreach Ministries and Great Emmanuel Temple of Grace.

To reiterate, I don’t have a problem with organized religion. One of my primary conscious motivations in undertaking a “church a week” type project is finding out more about what is behind religious communities. In a world where the interpersonal network is broken down over a series of wires and binary signals, I have deep respect for anything that can pull together people from different backgrounds and purposes. But please, don’t use science to try and prove the existence of God. It just takes all the fun out of faith.

More of my photographs here.