Presence

Midnight mass at St Marys in Lalibella. ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

The churches at Lalibela are carved downward into the earth. As you descend to enter, you immediately notice how it becomes immensely quiet. Not silent, but you become highly aware of all the sound around you. A kind of reverence for the sacred quality of the place. The sanctity of the place becomes very evident not by the impressive architecture but in how the followers relate to it. The pilgrims hardly notice me. Instead they seemed filled with a sense of presence of the church itself and what it represents to them. I was moving through these ancient hallways carved from dark red volcanic rock, with the smell of ancient manuscripts written on parchment made from goat skins strong in the air.

Sacred manuscript, Lalibela. ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

The pilgrims came not to see the church as an engineering or architectural marvel (which it is) but to be seen by God. These were people in the presence of something felt was actually there, within the stone and with them.

The Devout, Lalibela. ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

More often than not, when photographing, I am waiting for that moment when someone forgets they are being watched, and what’s underneath becomes briefly visible. In Lalibela, I didn’t have to wait. People forgot me almost immediately, not because I was invisible with my large camera, but because what they were doing was far more important than me watching. I watched priests and followers light candles and wait in deep thought before the ceremony began. I saw followers fall fully prostrate, overwhelmed by the holiness they felt in this place. It was common to come upon pilgrims reading their Bibles with intense focus or praying in a deeply meditative state. This was something deeply personal preserved from another time, another century.

Mass at St. Marys, Lalibela ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

At the midnight mass in St. Mary’s, the pilgrims in their white robes were packed wall to wall. Every person in the room was recreating a sacred ritual that had been happening here, little changed for more than 500 years.

The faithful in Lalibela, Ethiopia. ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

From above, Bete Giyorgis, I could see the cross shape the builders left in the earth. Inside, the light came through small openings carved into the rock, narrow windows, doorways cut at angles. As I was watching the people move through and around these impressive structures, you could feel that they believed that God was in the stone itself.

Across the top of Bete Giyorgis (Church of St. George). ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

I called this series Presence not only because the people in these images were uniquely focused and present, but because of the spiritual presence they believe is present within the rock. The photographs are what I could record of getting close to what they already knew was there.

Homage to a place built by angels ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

Pilgrims in prayer, Lalibela. ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia

“Presence” the complete Series

The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela were carved from volcanic stone in the 12th and 13th centuries under King Gebre Meskel Lalibela, who sought to create a new Jerusalem in the Ethiopian highlands. Eleven monolithic churches, connected by tunnels and trenches, remain active sites of Ethiopian Orthodox Christian worship and pilgrimage. The site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The Presence series was photographed in Lalibela as part of an ongoing body of work exploring sacred spaces and interior spiritual life across cultures.