The Raised Hand
Some thoughts on the pitfalls of photographing religious observance
At a glance, this photo by Demetrius Freeman in The New York Times looks like a repetition of a familiar visual trope: inflamed with passion, a man lifts his hand into the air during a worship service. Photographs like this can be problematic not only because they’re overly common, but because they present something that’s hard for readers to relate to: How many times has a viewer, even a religious viewer, ever worshiped by raising their hands in this way?
Worship spaces can be difficult for photographers to navigate, and raised hands are attractive because they illustrate both a heavenward gaze and a (compositionally convenient) break in the horizon. They rarely, however, tell us anything new or interesting about the person being photographed. Instead, they often reinforce something we already know about a religious group or worse, they reinforce something we think we already know about them.
