46.8

Continuing on a small arc of images about religion or rather the loss of faith, this one references a lot of sources, particularly the Book of Enoch and the vision or dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, both of which refer to the Grigori or the Watchers, basically, fallen angels.

On a more personal note, the motivation for this has to do with the floor piece in this composition, which was an upward angle of the facade of a hometown Catholic Church I recently visited to shoot some background imagery. The pose had a grace to it, which, adding to the religious context I was going for, led me to the song from Canadian singer-songwriter Jane Siberry and her song "An Angel Stepped Down." This could easily be called "Fallen" or "Descent" as well, but Jane's title had a nicer, poetic lilt to it.

The visit to this church stirred up all kinds of feeling in me, which took me by surprise. Having been an atheist for quite some time, I nevertheless felt a bit "fallen" from that world, when seeing it from their point of view.

The Watchers or Grigori were lulled away from the Lord of Light and tempted by the earthly pleasures. I guess, given the choice of tangible or intangible, I would have made the same choice!

Lastly, I would like to make a preemptive attempt at appealing to all you whistleblowers out there who police this and other sites for any nudity whatsoever and getting things blocked or users banned. There is NOTHING showing in this shot, side leg only, no frontal, no rear, so I chose to not restrict this image as "moderate" or "restricted" and please know the difference between artistic nudity and erotic material, and know that this is not the latter. For all you know, he could have been wearing a "sock." Thank you!

Model: Mike Ryan