In this posthumous show of John’s work, we highlight his deep attention to detail and the way he used his lens and his editing process to reveal the abstract within nature. John was an Episcopal priest, a contemplative Christian, and a spiritual director, and these parts of his character were always present in his artistic work. He went into the wild hoping that it would reveal its own deep arrangements to his eye, and then went back into his studio to bring those arrangements to the forefront of his pictures. Discovery was part of each step of his process.

John often wrote short meditations to accompany his photographs. He wanted his photos to be doorways to contemplation, and to expand our understanding of ourselves and our world. Born along the shores of Lake Erie, he returned to the Great Lakes again and again, and found them to be both redolent with a sense of home and full of wild mystery.

The mystery of the hidden world constantly intertwines with our world.

The landscape of my early years formed me in ways that have always been my story.

Walking to the shore of Lake Erie on a calm, warm night…

I never knew how this huge presence, disappearing at the horizon, would surprise me.

The breeze could have a chill, the fragrance of fresh water, a wisp of May flowers, juniper berries, holly.

Where did these scents begin?

In the warm months like a string of pearls on black velvet, lights appeared across the still dark water, bobbing here to there and round.

I was never certain when they would be. A mystery unpredictable.

Here were tiny human lights, in this enormous presence, from here to the north country.

Years later walking to the Susquehanna River, the mystery of that slow river silently flowing by Harrisburg.

“It is strange to be here.
The mystery never leaves.”*

-John Holliger