Analogous Jerusalem

Jerusalem is not just a city; it’s an idea. For millennia, it has been frequented by visitors of all faiths and social classes seeking to interact with its sanctity, entailing cycles of violent battles for its control, catalysing the need to relocate the idea of Jerusalem to places far from its physical boundaries. Analogous Jerusalem is a five-year photographic journey exploring these ‘analogous’ shrines in various landscapes, capturing the continuous topography of pilgrimage with elements belonging to mutually exclusive categories: the sacred and the profane. A three-part essay explores the translation of the sacred sites from Jerusalem to Europe, the rituals of virtual pilgrimage common among mediaeval nuns and the history of photographic journeys. Together, the images and text construct a travelogue through places that are perhaps more ‘real’ than Jerusalem itself.