Okolona Baptist Church

Okolona Baptist Church was established, albeit under a different name, in 1888. It had become an early mega-church by the 1960s, reaching a membership of around 500 people. On Sundays, the pews on the floor filled up and the balcony held even more congregants. There were services on Sunday and Wednesday nights, a large choir, and enough kids to have multiple baseball teams. My family had been members for years. 

Today, Okolona Baptist is lucky to get 30 people at a service. They have an aging population, a 9-member choir, and stopped doing Sunday School because there weren’t enough children. Still, for those who remain, the church is essential. For much of the congregation, the church is the only family they have left. As the members age, they rely on one another for support. Maybe it’s the spirits that my older cousins convinced me live in the basement, or maybe something holy, but there’s a kind of magic there for them.

To properly attest to these complicated experiences, I drew on my passion for photojournalism and candid photography. I roved around Sunday service and a holiday dinner, interviewed members, and delved into the history of the church. For my subject matter, I focused on two contrasting groups: the elderly who have been with the church for decades, and the youth that they pray will stay. In my depiction of these two groups, I emphasized the emptiness of their surroundings, showing the stagnation of the community and the physical reminders of its peak. These empty spaces often constrict around the subject, illustrating the threats posed to the future of the church. Most of all, I sought out emotionally rich subjects. The pieces in this work rely upon the pensive and self-reflective nature of congregants.

Finally, I sought to honor the legacy of arts and crafts that has kept this community together for decades. The physically altered pieces are inspired by the stained glass windows that congregants helped to make, quilts that have been exchanged, and a weaving done in the 1940s which was inherited by a current member.