Last week I took my class on a field trip at the old Spokane Masonic Temple. The Mason’s have vacated the building and sold it to a company that now runs it as the Riverside Event Center.
As I walked through the building I was reminded of the Walker Evans book Message from the Interior which feature 12 photogravure photographs of rooms whose objects tell a story about the people that once inhabited the space. His work creates a cognitive distance that inspires deep reflection about culture and interrogates the values we hold dear without realizing it because we operate within a particular world view. To view his work is to see these scenes as if you were an archeologist examining the remnants of an extinct civilization.
Walking through the various auditoriums within the massive temple, I was struck by the vastness of the space and the subtle symbolic imagery that adorned the rooms. This was a space for rituals and spirituality.
Membership into fraternal orders and lodges have declined significantly. My great grandfather was a Mason and so was my son’s great grandfather. The latter tried to convince me to join when I was in my 30s. He shared a book with me about initiation and I was humbled and honored by the invitation but far too busy at that point in my life to accept it. Besides, it seemed like a mysterious group filled with secrecy and mysticism and I didn’t think that was direction I wanted to go in my life.
So here I was on a Friday afternoon walking through these hallow rooms still field with questions that I could only ask photographically. From Walker Evans work I could see the value of using symmetry. With formal composition I could probe the the meaning of this space and yet remain unable to pierce the veil of secrecy.
I didn’t spend enough time here. I will definitely try to come back and do a more deliberate photographic investigation.
Peace,
Ira
