Allan Bruce Zee

 

 Waiting for the Believers
St. Amand de Coly, France, 1995

This 13th century fortified Augustinian church was in a tiny village in the Dordogne region of southern France.  A field was being burned outside the gates of the church.  When we entered, the light was pouring in, illuminating the particulate matter in the air.  The combination of the light along with the height and warmth of the stone walls, the warn, "soft" look of the stone floors and hundreds of old chairs set up in a totally empty church in a village of not more than 100 people made for a setting ripe with a sense of spirit.  The title "Waiting for the Believers" came to me before I even started to photograph.  It was as if the chairs were showing their patience.  At one time this was a more burgeoning town and the site of an abbey and the chairs were certainly filled.  Humankind goes through its cycles of belief and non-belief, but the structure is always there, waiting patiently for the "believers" to return.