Introduction/My Story

Hello! I wanted to share a bit about my reasons for creating this site. I’ve been photographing gothic architecture, historic buildings, museums, cemeteries, and events since 2019. I made this website to share a collection of the thousands of photos I have taken over the years, but I also hope it will be used as a resource for those who are looking to learn more about certain buildings. I personally have struggled a lot with finding info on lesser known buildings, which is why I’ve spent countless hours compiling all the info I’ve found from resources as accessible as Wikipedia sources, but also old parish books from the 1890s, plus there is a surprising amount of info in pamphlets I've collected that isn't easily available. A lot of the buildings I’ve visited don’t have any good photos online, so I hope viewers of my website are also inspired to visit these places for themselves after seeing the photos and history. I try to capture the small easily overlooked details of architecture and art. I really respect the architects, so I think it's important to showcase all of the often very symbolic decorative elements. Every detail is intentional. Thank you for being here. I have put so much time and love into this site and I will continue to update it with new and old photos almost weekly. 

I had never been interested in churches at all until I was looking for locations for a cosplay shoot in April 2019 and I thought First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh would be the perfect place for one of the characters I had recently gotten a costume for (Bang Dream’s Yukina). A few weeks after the shoot I thought I’d Google the building for reference. I saw the stone details, the scale of the church, and the huge vibrant stained glass windows (13 out of the 14 26ft high, 7.5ft wide windows in the nave were Tiffany, which is what made me become interested in his work). That same year I was in Pittsburgh for a month and at that point I was very interested in gothic architecture. I even visited multiple churches a day. My photos from then weren’t great, but it was an important time for me to learn about composition, lighting, and how to capture details, which has become my favorite thing about photography. I was struggling a lot during that time and photography is what got me through it. The reason I was there for a month was for an intensive therapy program because of depression. Who would’ve thought photography would become my therapy as a result of this trip?

I’m 21 years old and my passions and hobbies aside from all the things already on this page are obscure Japanese 80s metal and goth bands, bass guitar, fashion, collecting Japanese music magazines (I have 60+ right now all from the 80s-90s), and of course cosplay. I’ve been cosplaying since 2017 and I love doing shoots of my cosplays just as much as I love photographing architecture. I have contacts of churches I like in my phone so I can have their “birthdays” in my calendar (the day their cornerstone was laid). Below are some photos of me with and my cosplay pics at churches, including the photos of the day I was introduced to gothic architecture and a picture of me crying at Sts Peter and Paul because I was so upset about it being abandoned.