from a wildlife and nature photographer, with speciality in rattlesnakes (IG: @simp.for.snakes ; Flickr: Ethan Staats): the whole experience of the book is great. from the feel of the materials (high quality), to the spirit embedded in the form of the book (everything from the page thickness to the cover embossing to the tassle, the colors, the page layout, even the smell of the book) is a very biblical embodiment that gives both spiritual weight and experiential depth to the book. the uniqueness of the church and the vanishing state of it are well-honored. the book is not romantic about these things either, neither subtle nor loving with them, it is almost brutalist in its delivery; "this faith is lethal, it hurts from inside and it hurts from outside, and it is in the process of ending itself". the weight of it sits on your chest like a cold iron ingot. this was a very unique experience from a photobook that i have enjoyed very much. i haven't yet extracted the narrative, but if there is one, then i'm thoroughly enjoying the process of being led through to it.

i can't say enough about how much i'm enjoying it in its own right, but i'm also a person with a (different flavor of) spiritual connection with rattlesnakes, and timbers are my personal favorite species. so, seeing these animals represented in this way was satisfying to me also.

what a great book, i'm not at all surprised it's been archived as a preservation/legacy of human traditions.