Several weeks ago our rector at Christ Church Redondo Beach told me about a professional photographer who lives across the street from the church and a half block from where I live. His name is Chris Haston. Chris has an affinity for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and so do I so I quickly found him on the Internet.
This is a print of Chris's he calls 110 Mary, taken at the 4th Street Bridge in downtown L.A. with the old Bonaventure Hotel on the left and the California Bank Tower on the right.
Not a Catholic himself, Chris found a cast-off statue of Mary on top of a copy of the L.A. Times in the recycling bin. You can read the whole story of his Riding With Mary project that started him on his journey. You can see a marvelous gallery of his images at his own website, Chris Haston. You can also see images at LensScratch.
I had e-mailed him some weeks back saying I really admired his work I had seen online and he said to knock on the door sometime when I was walking Mollie. I did that tonight and I am so glad that I did. He introduced me to his girlfriend and they showed me some of his prints--and the top half of the original Mary he found. She got broken in a desert photo shoot and on a copy of his documentary, he shows her "being laid to rest."
And if you have an affinity for Mary, too, you will love the story of how he has portrayed her. There is a link to the short documentary at his website as well although I haven't been successful in running it there. He gave me a copy of it, however, and I'm Googling to see if I can find it somewhere live. (My Cyberfriend priti.lisi at Priti Studio found a copy of Chris's documentary here.)
Thanks so much, Chris. I just love what you are doing!
