GALLERY of STAINED  GLASS  ART 

 

As photographer and curator of The Gallery of Stained Glass Art, I warmly welcome you to my website. A lifelong organist, choral director, music educator and author, I originated the Gallery in 2002 and have photographed the windows at over four hundred churches, cathedrals and chapels. Many other churches have followed the steps laid out in my book, “A Guide to Stained Glass Photography” and have made excellent photographic reproductions of their own windows. The Gallery collaborates with churches in organizing presentations and in creating stained glass collections within specific denominations or geographic regions.

The Gallery of Stained Glass Art was created with a unique vision: to give the stained glass treasures of sacred edifices greater visibility in the digital age of the 21st century. A stained glass window belongs in a special category of visual art: it is incorporated into the permanent structure of a building. Stained glass is also the only form of art that must be viewed from the interior of the building, and it requires daylight – and no other light source – in order to be visible.

It is reasonable to assume that a stained glass window appears best in its natural habitat rather than in a photographic reproduction. This is not entirely true. The season and time of day have a significant impact on how stained glass is seen by an observer from inside the church. The observer’s line of sight toward a given window is also a factor. On a stained glass tour, for example, visitors view the windows on a specific day and time, and they may move around to take in various angles. If it is a bright, sunny day, some of the windows will most likely be in favorable lighting while others will be in direct line with the sun and potentially over-illuminated, impeded by shadows, or both. On a cloudy day, windows on all sides of the building would receive uniform daylight, more or less, but the reduced lighting would make viewing difficult especially when there is a lot of fine detail in the art. Fortunately, members of a church community have regular access to the facilities and can readily undertake the project of photographing its stained glass windows. The results of such an effort enhance the artistic profile of a sacred institution by making many special, often breathtaking works of art available to the wider Christian community and beyond. The most obvious media applications include the church website, calendars, cards, bookmarks, posters, programs and pictorial publications, as well as religious education.

The proceeds from the sale of Archive Collections are donated to seminaries, clergy retirement, and other worthy causes.

The mission of the Gallery of Stained Glass Art is to assist churches in accomplishing this task. I travel throughout the northeastern United States for on-site photography and I provide unlimited assistance via telephone and email to those who own a copy of “A Guide to Stained Glass Photography.”  My aim is to ensure my clients’ total satisfaction.