Jim Johnson is a man on a mission – to photograph the interior of every single church in Dorset.
It will probably take several years, and cost him thousands of pounds, but the Sherborne-based snapper is not one to take the easy road – and admits quite freely it’s a ‘mad’ project. One has to admire his dogged determination, as well as the resulting pictures of Dorset churches– a plethora of powerful and profound studies in black and white.
His portraits often focus on the little details inside Dorset churches, capturing snippets of the architecture, art, and furniture, rather than general views of the exteriors. Jim will zoom in on apparently mundane objects, which then assume heightened meaning under his lens.
“I didn’t want to make it easy on myself and walk in and just shoot what everybody else shoots,” he says. “I wanted to do something a bit different. I don’t move things. What you see is what I see. So if there’s a big bucket with a mop sticking out of it, I’m not going to move it, because a church is a living building.”
Having spent 23 years photographing weddings, Jim is no stranger to ceremonies and events held in ecclesiastical surroundings. But he never photographed a church until the day he was on his way to meet a friend in Wareham and something made him pull over.
The Church (its dedication lost in the mists of time) at Whitcombe, near Dorchester, is one he’d driven past countless times, without a second glance. It caught his eye, and he went in. The 12th century building is cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust, and Jim was entranced by the church, which has magical medieval wall paintings that include an image of St Christopher and a mermaid combing her hair.
“I had, for want of a better word – and I’m not religious – an epiphany,” says Jim.
Now he sees church interiors with fresh eyes and hopes that visitors to his exhibitions will come away wanting to seek out Dorset churches themselves.
He chose to shoot in black and white because colour, he explains, can be a distraction. Photograph a font with a stained-glass window behind it and the eye goes straight to the window. Strip out the colour, and suddenly the font commands the attention it deserves.
Wyke Regis-born Jim doesn’t use flash or adjust the lighting. His personal favourite of all the images he has captured so far is Holy Trinity Chapel at Leweston School. This photograph has wonderful composition, looking in through a pair of heavy, ancient wooden doors studded with iron nails.
Through the doorways, framed like a picture within a picture, stands a stone font, solid above a flagstone floor. But it can take Jim a while to find the shots he wants to use. And first, he must navigate his way round all the hundreds of churches in Dorset.
Jim has identified 438 churches, distributed across the four Dorset dioceses of Salisbury, Bath and Wells, Winchester and Plymouth. “Its a long, long project,” he says. “If I head to Christchurch for example, I’ve got to find the church, get in, and take my one photo of the church. That takes a day. It’s a day gone.
“And I can drive halfway around Bournemouth or Poole visiting churches that are locked or closed and come away with absolutely nothing. Even on a good day I can only manage two or three tops, and then I feel like I’m rushing it.”
Most of the images you see here are ‘rejects’ – photographs Jim has posted to his Instagram account, but discarded as candidates for his upcoming exhibition. “I don’t post the exhibition pictures on Instagram, because what’s the point?
“People will have already seen them. So I’m just posting nice images that didn’t make the cut.”
Last year, Sherborne Abbey gave Jim the opportunity to exhibit his work, and the exhibition was so well received that he has been invited back again in August.
What a testament to true talent – this second show feels like one not to be missed.
Dorset & Beyond: A Discovery of Churches by Jim Johnson is hosted by Sherborne Abbey from August 3-28. Entry is free. You can follow Jim on Instagram @photosbyjimj