Alexandria Photographer Nina Tisara Reflects on 40 Years of Photojournalism

Alexandria, VA – You may have seen my Converging Paths/Witnessing Worship photographs when they were exhibited at The Lyceum and local churches.

Here is a summary of the backstory.

While working full time for a national association, I took a job as a freelance photojournalist for the Alexandria Gazette Packet. I photographed on Saturdays, processed film on Saturday nights, printed on Sundays, and dropped prints on the editor’s desk on my way to work on Monday mornings.

I got hooked on photojournalism when my first print was published on the front page of the Alexandria Gazette Packet in the summer of 1980.

I lived four miles from Alexandria. Driving east to the river, I counted seven churches of different denominations — and two more a half-mile west. It made me wonder — nine churches in four and a half miles. What did it mean?

As the single mom of four teenagers, I loved the quiet of the darkroom. When the youngest turned 18, I planned to leave my full-time job. I hoped the money from unused vacation and sick leave would carry me while I tried to establish a photography business.

I drafted a proposal to the Alexandria Commission for the Arts to document the architecture of Alexandria’s churches, all 73 as listed in the then-Yellow Pages – and was awarded a small grant.

Before long, I knew it wasn’t the architecture I wanted to document. The grant would serve as a passport into the churches to witness what happened inside. I asked a minister to help me plan. I asked which of those churches I might leave out. “None,” he said. He gave me a list of Alexandria clergy and suggested I contact them all and photograph all that responded. I did.

I photographed in 50 different locations including churches, synagogues, family homes, the Alexandria National Cemetery, a rambler where Buddhist monks lived and worshipped, the Alexandria City Jail, and the George Washington National Masonic Memorial for Easter sunrise.

In the beginning, getting permission to photograph the services was hard. When I could get past the church secretaries to the ministers, I assured them my goal was to document the essence of what happened without disturbing what happened. I would use no flash and carry no tripod. Most responded yes. When I was introduced at the beginning of each service ,I asked the congregation to try to forget I was there and mostly they did.

Shooting in available light was tough. These were the days of film. I shot mostly with the lens wide open at slow shutter speeds. I would literally hold my breath and pray to whatever powers there might be to let there be an image on the film I could print.

One cannot come away from these experiences untouched. I came away not only touched, but somewhat bruised. The camera which was license to witness these events also kept me from being a part of them. Many, many times, prayer circles opened to welcome me, but if I put my camera down to hold hands, I must stop being a photographer.

I published a book, “Converging Paths,” with one image from each place I photographed. When I asked the owner of a Christian bookstore if he would carry it, he very nicely said no and as I left he wished me well with my ministry. “My ministry.” All this time I thought I had nothing to say. I just made pictures.

Now I accept that the images I selected for the exhibit are the message — we are kin in our search for meaning.

Words that I heard at the rededication of tombstones at Alexandria National Cemetery still resonate with me. I had asked the rabbi of Beth El Hebrew Congregation for a copy and he took the pages from his loose-leaf notebook and gave them to me. The words, in part, are:

“…This is the fact of human oneness, one species, one living kin. How insignificant are the differences between us, against the mountainous identities of this one family of time and earth… We will make of this small plot of soil, this globe, a messenger of meaning and peace.”

May it be so, dear readers, may it be so.

Mosaic artist/photographer Nina Tisara is the founder of Living Legends of Alexandria