What does “religion and the environment” look like? Enter the 2019 Religion-Environment Photo Contest and help expand our collective vision of what faithful care of creation looks like.
This gallery was begun with a photo contest in 2018 that invited images – displayed below – that capture the many dimensions of faith-based creation care, environmental justice, and spiritual elements of ecology and sustainability. The photo captions reveal additional information about the motivations, setting and story behind each image. This gallery will remain open for ongoing submissions of the diverse expressions of faith community environmental work, and all photos carry a creative commons license for public use (all photos in this gallery will also be available for an online, open-source textbook about Religion and Environmental Values in America, forthcoming in 2019). Enjoy, and please submit your photos and captions here!
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- Milo-Grogran community garden in Columbus, OH. Photo credit: Kamara Willoughby
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- Evangelicals from across the country lobby on Capitol Hill for a price on carbon in 2017. Photo credit: Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
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- Every year our Christian intentional community and school spends several weeks focusing on environmental issues and the importance of being conscious of our energy use. For one week we discontinue the use of electricity, natural gas, and running water and use only renewable resources. This is a photo of Dr. Kim and Dr. Kwon sharing in our evening devotional. Photo credit: Wilhelmina Witt
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- Enlightenment at 16,340 ft: Rongbuk Monastery against Mt. Everest. Photo credit: Rongkun Liu
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- Mirror Lake Peace – I didn’t have many chances to get out and enjoy nature in college, especially freshman year living on campus at OSU. I really enjoyed taking time out of busy freshmen year to slow time and enjoy the little bit of nature on campus. It was counter cultural on campus to slow down and find peace amidst the stress of college. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- Youth gardens catalyzed by Cardinal Turkson visit to Columbus in 2015. Photo credit: http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170829/columbus-bonds-with-ghana-sister-city-through-agriculture-project
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- Trail Magic 2nd Year Tall Grass Prairie. Photo credit: Carl N. McDaniel
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- Every year our Christian intentional community and school spends several weeks focusing on environmental issues and the importance of being conscious of our energy use. Students research, build, and test various forms of appropriate technology, including solar cookers, rocket stoves. In this photo a group of students are learning the principles of sand-water filtration. Photo credit: Wilhelmina Witt
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- Young Evangelicals for Climate Action march at the People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014. Photo credit: Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
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- Father and son duo help remove on of the largest bittersweet roots the Athens Conservancy had ever seen in Strouds Run State Park, July 7th, 2018. This was part of an ongoing monthly service project called First Saturday, where all participants wear their red shirts with the Wesley quote: “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” Photo credit: Jenaye Michele Hill
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- Abode of Peace: A Tibetan Buddhist Temple Perched on Hillside for Meditation Retreat. Photo credit: Rongkun Liu
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- Close Sunflower – This was in the community garden I started at my high school, Archbishop McNicholas High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. The sunflower was huge and the number of seeds it produced was incredible. I wanted to capture the detail in the perfectly organized seed arrangement in the flower that is one of infinite examples of an intelligent designer of creation. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- 2018 Photo Contest 1st place photo: Theotokos in the Apothecary. Photo credit: Jacob Taylor, 2017
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- Hostas for Grandma – This was in college in Clifton just off campus at University of Cincinnati. We were going to an Italian restaurant for my grandmother’s birthday. It was one of the first photos I took with my first digital camera. I still love it for the fact that these beautiful hostas were surrounded by concrete on all sides in a busy city. In a dessert of a city these were an oasis of life. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- Morning Tree – this photo was taken together with “Twinrise” (also in this gallery). I took this photo in Armleader Park on the Little Miami River after soccer conditioning at 6 am in high school. Coming home the sun was always still rising in the river valley that was blanketed in fog every morning. After practice instead of going back to sleep I decided to take advantage of the beauty of a new day to see the world in a unique light. The low sun and thick fog created amazing silhouettes that really emphasized the strength of the trees to me. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- Rooftop garden sunflowers at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Headquarters in Chicago, IL. Photo courtesy of technologyforthepoor.com
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- IPC Intergenerational Neighborhood Clean-up Day! Photo credit: Ann Hitzhusen
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- Faith Leaders at the Climate March. Photo credit: Bill Bradlee
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- Activists with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action meet with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to discuss faith-based climate advocacy. Photo credit: Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
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- 2018 Photo Contest 2nd place photo: Spiritual Tree- I took this photo in Hocking Hills, Ohio on the trail between Old man’s cave and Cedar Falls. It was spring and the forest was exploding with life. The air hummed with excitement and power that is comparable with excitement and power of a rich spiritual life in communion with God. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- Office for Social Concerns, Catholic Diocese of Columbus, held a staff retreat on October 4th, the Feast of St. Francis, at St. Therese Retreat Center. Among many topics we discussed Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ and recommitted ourselves to make the world better than we found it. Photo credit: Jerry Freewalt
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- Sr. Paula Gonzalez, Ohio Interfaith Power and Light Co-Founder, the Solar Nun. Photo courtesy of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light
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- Young Evangelicals for Climate Action march at the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. in 2017. Photo credit: Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
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- Container gardens. Photo courtesy of technologyforthepoor.com
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- Faith joins the Climate March. Photo credit: Bill Bradlee
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- Ohio Serving the Poor – This photo was taken on the gulf cost in Biloxi, Mississippi. It was winter break during my freshmen year at Ohio State (2013). It was a Buck-I-Serve trip. Doing an O-H-I-O is a normal occurrence, but I really like the natural beauty of the silhouette on the beach where we were staying. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- Participants in the girls book and social action club, Girls Read and Do, participate in the Jewish New Year ritual of Tashlich as part of an educational session on how to ensure that our Jewish practices are harmonious with the environment (in this case, casting bird seed in lieu of the traditionally used bread crumbs — not healthful for water foul — into the water). Photo credit: Liz Vaisben
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- Clergy climate-energy advocacy at the Ohio Statehouse. Photo courtesy of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light
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- Grace Cathedral. Photo credit: Bill Bradlee
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- Kali Maa under transformation after being found at Jamaica Bay during a cleanup organized by the photographer Rohan Narine and his wife Aminta Kilawan-Narine alongside other local Indo-Caribbean Hindus advocating for eco-friendly worship. Kali is an embodiment of the Goddess Durga. She is fierce and associated with empowerment or shakti. Kali means black, time, and death, thus Kali is the goddess of time and change. Although she is sometimes depicted as dark and violent, Kali Maa’s earliest incarnation is as a figure of the destruction of evil. Photo credit: Rohan Narine
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- Headless Baby Krishna. Many of the items used in worship get broken by wave and water action. This depicts what happened after a worshipper with the best of intentions, left the murthi (sculpture of Hindu deity) at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City. It is said that at midnight on Janamashtami, baby Krishna, who is depicted in this murthi, was born and travelled across the Yamuna River in order to help Mother Earth bear the burden of the sins of the tyrannical leaders of the world. This murthi was found by the photographer Hemma Kilawan, during a cleanup organized by Indo-Caribbean Hindus in the New York City area. Photo credit: Hemma Kilawan
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- Twinrise- This photo was taken together with “Morning Tree” (also in this gallery). I took this photo in Armleader Park on the Little Miami River after soccer conditioning at 6 am in high school. Coming home the sun was always still rising in the river valley that was blanketed in fog every morning. After practice instead of going back to sleep I decided to take advantage of the beauty of a new day to see the world in a unique light. The low sun and thick fog created amazing silhouettes that really emphasized the strength of the trees to me. Photo credit: Tony Losekamp
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- Peace Church, Bowling Green, OH. Photo courtesy of: Deb Conklin
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- 2018 Photo Contest 3rd place photo: Shiva, the God of Destruction, Destroyed. Hindus have worshipped at the banks of Ganges and the shores of other bodies of water for centuries. Jamaica Bay is basically a closed system, so whatever lands in its waters stays until it is removed. The Ganges and many other bodies of water have become polluted by the use of many user groups. The Ganges, one of the major rivers of India, also known as Ganga Maa, is said to have made her abode in Shiva’s matted hair in order to prevent the destruction of Prithvi (Mother Earth). The flow of the Ganges also represents the nectar of immortality. Shiva is regarded as “the Destroyer” among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. He is also regarded as the patron god of yoga and the arts. Here, Shiva is found broken in the sands of Jamaica Bay, during a cleanup organized by the photographer Aminta Kilawan-Narine and her husband Rohan Narine. Photo credit: Aminta Kilawan-Narine