Little Country Church of my Ancestors

This is a little country church in the Wassamassaw area of Berkley County, SC, near Moncks Corner if you want to map it. This was the first time I had visited this church on a trip back home last November. Behind it, in its very old cemetery, are buried my great-great grandparents on my mother's mother's side. I have just recently discovered their existence and my connection to them. My great-great-grandfather, who was at one time the church clerk, was excommunicated for trying to take liberties with some church sisters...but that's another story. He did at least make it to the burial ground.

Having visited and photographed cathedrals in both Europe and this country and being inspired by their grandeur and architectural design, I had an altogether different experience with this little wood frame church and its small but relatively soaring steeple and cross. The architecture so very simple and the building so stark white. It was the middle of the day with no clouds and the sun high in the sky and a little to my left.

Although, as I said before, I seldom compose in the viewfinder with a final image in mind, I saw the possibility of a graphic black & white with the clapboards just barely in shadow and the sky so purely blue pierced by the cross atop the steeple. My first inclination was to name the image "This Way to Heaven" but not being particularly religious I just named it "Wassamassaw Baptist Church."

Best regards,

Frank Z