The Gospel of the Photographer by Elisabeth Tonnard
now available at the bdp store: buy it here

What would it be like if Jesus had been a photographer? What would he have done differently and which images would he have snapped? The Gospel of the Photographer imagines this possible world through a rewriting of the gospel of Mark. Words from the gospel were replaced by words connected to photography, resulting in a booby trapped text in which photography appears as an agent of miracles and healing—and announces itself ultimately as the new religion. The book includes twenty-five newly discovered photographs.

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he took photographs. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may take photographs there also, for that is what I came for.” And he went throughout all Galilee, photographing in their synagogues and casting out demons.

-Elisabeth Tonnard-

The book is included in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the International Center of Photography Library, MoMA Library, and the New York Public Library.