This image was made underneath the arches of the 16thC Stonebow in the centre of ancient Lincoln, in the East Midlands of England.

Before Covid it became the natural  haunt of an ever-changing group of Jehovahs witnesses; capturing – or hoping to at least – the attention of the thousands who pass by on their way from downhill Lincoln, the commercial part of the city, to uphill Lincoln, where the Cathedral and Lincoln Castle stand, the tourist part of the city.
Thousands of tourists and local shoppers pass through here everyday. Once upon a long time ago, amazingly, motor buses did the same, long since stopped.

This day, a homeless man and his dog sat under the historic shelter too.

In the time I stood there, several minutes, the pious Jehovah’s Witnesses, with their scrubbed shiny faces and their clarion – and yet ironic – message of “Find Family Happiness” paid him no attention; cast him ne’er a glance; certainly they didn’t offer him or his dog any comfort.

There seemed something utterly at odds between the avowed intent of their religious dogma and their inaction.

Meanwhile, the throngs of ghostly passers by shuffled past, ignoring everybody, pious and hungry alike, in this modern day tableau for our times.

I rarely spend much time making images. I usually see the picture, make it and leave. This time I spent no short amount of time constructing this image. It was taken very slowly and purposefully. I felt it was important  I do so.

Image made, December 2019.

PDBarton
Lincoln
July 2020