Portals – doors, gates, archways – have become one of my favorite subjects for my travel photography. For some reason, they fascinate me. I’m intrigued by the mysteries that can be discovered beyond them. Sometimes they tease with a glimpse, a promise of something interesting inside. The allure of others lie in their design, material, uniqueness and the people near them that add a point of interest. Whatever it is, I am drawn to capture them with my lenses.
For this blog, I am featuring a photograph I took at the rooftop of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. I was fascinated by the image of a black-garbed man by a bright green door. He seems to be a monk of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the door is one of the entrances to the Deir el-Sultan Monastery.
An interesting fact that I learned during our visit to the Holy Land is that some religious sites in Jerusalem and Bethlehem are under the Status Quo, an understanding among religious communities who share possession and responsibility for these holy places.
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is one of those under the Status Quo. It is mainly run by the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church with minor rights given to the Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox Churches.
The rooftop is where we left the crosses we carried for the Via Dolorosa along the streets of Jerusalem. The Ninth Station is located on the church roof near the entrance to the Ethiopian Orthodox Monastery. That was where I beheld this eye-catching scene of the Monk by the Green Door.
The image was so compelling that I was inspired to also capture it with my paintbrush. I painted a watercolor vignette to preserve the memory.
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