Goethe once described architecture as 'frozen music'. Standing in the nave of a cathedral, with the symmetry of columns ascending into romanesque or gothic arches, and the fine tracery of stained glass windows allowing light to enter one can see how Goethe's statement holds true. Just like music, the architecture of cathedrals has the capability to invoke emotions in us. With their monuments and memorials to aristocrats, clergy, poets and even the occasional scientist cathedrals also tell the history of power, conflict, frailty and ecclesiastical reformation.
The studies of cathedrals in England and France by the English photographer Frederick H. Evans (1853-1943) are considered among the world’s finest architectural photographs. In Evans’s view, light represented spiritual enlightenment. His style emphasized a cathedral’s immense spaces and infinite variety of light and textures.His platinum prints remain some of the finest photographs of cathedrals ever made.
