Architecture of a Church
Category=AJCD
Church attendance
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Riverside Baptist Church
San Antonio
Texas
Product details
- ISBN 9781910401873
- Dimensions: 245 x 310mm
- Publication Date: 03 Apr 2023
- Publisher: GOST Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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In 2021, Dyal passed by Riverside Baptist Church on a weekday afternoon, and after not being inside
the building for over 50-years, spotted an open door and entered. He began to return regularly
to document the interior and the many rooms and spaces which are no longer in use, without
electricity and slowly deteriorating. His painterly photographs are devoid of people but heavy with
the echoes of past human presence—chairs, toys, robes, furniture, artificial flowers and books—
relics of an earlier time. Dyal’s background as an architect is evident in his portrayal of the building,
its details and negative space. Multiple doorways lead the viewer through the book, and objects
in the photographs often appear as sculptural inventions. A series of archival black and white
photographs at the end of the book, show the church in its heyday offering a counterpoint to what
remains. Although firmly rooted in one church, the images are representative of a wider pattern of
diminishing church attendance across the US.
Herman Dyal received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Texas at Austin,
and a Master of Architecture degree from Tulane University. A registered architect, he was a
Founding Principal of Fuller, Dyal & Stamper, of Dyal and Partners, and a Principal at Page/Dyal. In
2010, he was elected to The College of Fellows of The American Institute of Architects. In 2018, he
was presented the Fellow Award by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, Austin. The Things Not
Seen Are Eternal is his first photographic monograph.
