Face To Faith by Laila Nahar

I was trying to grasp and capture what is there in the shades of rituals and faith in the pilgrims of the old city of Jerusalem. To me, I see familiar expression on every pilgrim’s face - on the western wall, inside Dome of Rock and the Church of Holy Sepulchre. It was of deep faith, vulnerability of human existence and, lamenting the loss of ancient cause.

The old city has three of the world’s most important religious sites.
Just behind the Wailing Wall which is considered the holiest for Jews, I could see the glittering Dome of the Rock, which houses the rock from
where Muslims believe the prophet Mohammed ascended  to heaven.

And only minutes away is the pilgrim-thronged Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows), which follows the Stations of the Cross to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, on the site where Jesus is believed to have been crucified.

By end of day, to me, all faces in the sacred sites of Christianity, Jewish and Islam became one - every pilgrim in the congregation or prayers was same to me.

It is painful to conceive, for centuries, religions fight over the narratives of Jerusalem and the custody of its stones. The outside of the book stands as a wall depicting the walled city of Jerusalem while the inside of the accordion shows the pilgrims devoted into rituals from three religion.