Ecclesia Catholica Iconographia, an Analog Exploration of Catholic Iconograph
In a world growingly ruled by digital urgency, this series of photographs by Pierre Toutain-Dorbec offers a meditative approach to delve into the origins, and significance of religious iconography within the Catholic Church. This body of work, seized with most singular sensitivity -- in Italy, Spain, and France --, exposes the visual language of Catholicism across its frescoes, sculptures, architecture, and sacred relics, each infused with centuries of devotion and theological significance.
This choice of hand-painted photography is intensely effective in this circumstance, as the gouache tones lend the images a painterly mannerism. The focus on sensuality helps to create a bridge between art and faith, prompting observers that Catholic iconography is not strictly aesthetic but much sacramental.
Toutain-Dorbec collection establishes an intense intimacy, with each photograph inviting meditation and attracting the viewer into the quieted gaps where faith is enacted.
