UNHOLY FAMILY

It takes almost a day to cross Lake Tana in northwest Ethiopia. Dotted on the vast lake are several isolated monasteries covered in painted wall panels that stretch from floor to ceiling and date from the 12th century.

Some 5 years ago I trekked to these remote Coptic outposts. My grandfather was the first Greek Orthodox priest in America, and I am immersed in Byzantine history and art.

I took simple, tourist snapshots of the painted 20-foot high wall panels in several of these darkened monasteries. The panels are divided into smaller segments, some no bigger than a piece of typing paper. The segments from the basis for the large-scale photographic prints of The Unholy Family series. I digitally manipulated these segments, taken from my original snapshots, into a form that enabled me to superimpose short text phrases.

The series comprises about 18 final prints at present and the work is ongoing – probably totaling about 30-35 pieces.

The images are printed on nearly translucent Japanese archival paper and measure 44 x 63 inches.


It goes without saying that the following jpegs are poor representatives of the original prints.