Michael Belk's modern Jesus photographs

My first thought is "aren't we past Jesus as being of Northern European descent?".

Then when I actually look at the photos, I think that the second one looks like a riff off My Name is Earl.

They are photos that seem to be based in United States media. They seem a bit school-project-y.

interesting, i like the ones posted, off to check out the site

Cool beans! The sepia tones are pitch perfect with the dust bowl like revisionist universe.

okay, now that i've seen the rest, a little to schmaltzy for my tastes, i really only like the nazi and dust bowl one that were posted

I believe they were all shot in Italy and the "Jesus" is Italian.

I agree that many of the images are sugary but I think they're well executed, in an interview Belk said "Jesus didn't come to found a religion, he came to deliver a message" and that's what he's trying to show.

There's some interesting commentary about the Nazi photo around the net: would Jesus, a Jew, forgive the Nazis? Is Jesus armed or did he disarm the soldier?

I think there is an intentional and mildly campish quality to the remainder of the collection especially seen here http://thejourneysproject.com/image-detail.aspx?id=309. It could be ode to the everyman storied silent films of yesteryear.
Besides, Jesus standing next to a Ferrari is a visual hoot!
http://thejourneysproject.com/image-detail.aspx?id=310

Not a perfect collection in all rights. The couple of shots Jesus with child/children just carbon copy the saccharine style seen in the compositions of the talentless hacks that publish those born-again pamphlets. The Safe Harbor shot also fails in its obvious propagandist laden schmaltziness. Then again these shots could be a satirical take on that medium of publications which in their sarcastic delivery might have failed to deliver its intended critical message.

Fascinating. I have no idea whatever what his point is, but it's interesting stuff.

Those aren't modern pictures! Obviously they were taken in the 1940's. It disturbs me that Jesus is giving advice to Hitler!

Do you think he was recruited by Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh to counsel Hitler?

Perhaps Tsar. However, in this picture, I can only imagine Jesus saying to Hitler, "It's the Jews that killed me you know".

And in the bottom picture a caption reading, "What kind of luggage would Jesus carry?"

You ever think about a career in marketing? Madison Ave. would love your style NF!

One would have to hope that Hitler didn't listen.

I'm quite fond of the rendering below:

yeah....but you know he's gonna be hanging upside down in a second....from the nails in his feet!

I don't think he's forgiving the Nazi at all ... I think in this photograph he's trying to reason with the Nazi, almost trying to persuade him, change his way of thinking, perhaps? Why he has the rifle, I don't know. But he doesn't look at all threatening, or as if he'd even consider using it. And the Nazi doesn't seem at all threatened. Nor is he even remotely persuaded by Christ's eloquent arguments. That Nazi uniform is a much more frightening symbol of hardness & power than the rifle is, though.

I don't know what to make of the second photograph. It's the most complex of the three.

Quirky. But observant.

I like that.

Personally, I don't much care about Jesus, and I don't much care about kitsch, so that's two counts against the pictures. Nice lighting though.

I'm not a Christian but I like Jesus, or, you know, the idea of Jesus. I especially like the idea of Jesus as this guy who helps out where he's needed and I guess that's what I see in these photos.

And I love photography!

What would have made the series really hit me over the head was if he had used different people to portray Jesus while keeping all the other elements stylistically the same. That would have been interesting!

The fact that I don't believe the same thing this photograper does doesn't mean I can't appreciate his work and see the merit of his ideas.

Msolga -- I too thought the second photo was interesting. I'd love to know what book the guard (?) is reading since Jesus seems to be the only one interested in it.

Look! Up on the Cross! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's SUPER JESUS!!!