Using a visual medium to record something as intangible as faith, as subjective as spirituality, may seem like a paradox; however, it is a challenge that has allowed me to investigate boundaries of genre. By focusing primarily on the sites themselves—their delicate structures, ephemeral materials and organic connection to the desert landscape—I hope to reveal elements of transcendence and devotion. I am most interested in images which push beyond their role as document; my decision not to include people in the religious landscape departs from a photojournalistic reading, thereby creating a direct and intimate experience between viewer and object. Because of their physical nature, the images dialogue with a history of land art and earthworks. This body of work, made at holy sites in north-west China in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, has a direct connection to history and place. The Uighurs are a Turkic Muslim ‘ethnic minority’. Visitation to the tombs of the saints is historically a central aspect of Uighur spiritual practice and deeply influenced by Sufi Mysticism.
