A Space for Faith: The Colonial Meeting Houses of New England

When built in the 1700s, colonial meetinghouses were the center of both religious and civic life - concepts not at all separate in colonial New England. Paul Wainwright has collected a wealth of images of New England's surviving colonial meetinghouses that go beyond mere documentation of what these buildings look like - they explore the feeling of "presence" that exists in them. An accompanying essay by noted colonial historian Peter Benes elaborates on the communities that built and used these meetinghouses, and traces a narrative rich in the history and architecture of New England. "Paul Wainwright's photographs are caretakers of memory and history." - Yankee Magazine

Paul Wainwright is a photographer based in Atkinson, New Hampshire, who works in a traditional manner utilizing sheet film, a large-format camera, and silver gelatin printing. His work has appeared in numerous juried competitions and solo exhibitions, and is included in the permanent collections of both private and corporate collectors, including Fidelity Investments and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He is a mostly self-taught photographer who brings to his images an eye for space and light, subtle details, and an appreciation of history. Working with traditional photographic media such as 4x5 sheet film and silver gelatin paper processed in a wet darkroom, he achieves in his prints a sense of quiet contemplation that comes from the slow, Zen-like pace of creating his images.