All Saints’, Tangmangaroo

Built in 1889, All Saints', Tangmangaroo is an Anglican church in the middle of nowhere, next to a wooden house that was once a school, and surrounded by paddocks. Lonely churches, barely or never used, are common in the Yass Valley and vicinity — their congregations must have been farming families, the numbers of which would have shrunk as farm sizes grew bigger, transport developed and Christianity waned in popularity.

I spent two weeks working on this image, trying to blend the past and present, showing the luminous beauty of the church’s stonework and hinting at its spiritual past.