Adolfo Medina Alamo
damned / d[amen]d
Photography
This work is an artistic recreation exploring my viewpoints of organized religion after becoming an atheist in 2022, during a trip to Spain that completely changed my life during my mid-to-late twenties.
“As a man who for over 25 years lived under religious teachings before becoming an atheist, I can say that there is blatant hypocrisy and incoherency within the realm of organized religion. What is meant to be the love of God has been replaced by fear and used as a tactic to disregard and oppress those who do not fit the guidelines in many conservative churches, alienating members who fit with their notion of sin. Our freedom of being was suppressed through sermons co-opting the Lord's word and the fear-driven hypocritical corruption of faith that has ostracized me and others, deeming us as damned.But what does it mean ‘to be damned’ exactly? In Christianity, damned refers to the state of being condemned to eternal punishment or separation from God, often due to unrepentant sin, but what is the true meaning of being damned? What sin did we commit that resulted in our damnation? If the love that God has for his children is boundless, then are we truly damned?Thus, the premise of this work, damned/d[amen]d, symbolizes the deconstruction of these contradictory doctrines coming from conservative churches from the viewpoint of how I wish things were as an ex-follower of the Catholic faith and why these ideas prompted me to leave the church permanently due to contradictory sentiments from God and the Preacher.damned/d[amen]d visually distorts preconceived notions of what it is to live as children of God coming from warped teachings of the Lord. With the help of models deriving from different groups marginalized by religious groups, my purpose is to readapt these close-minded notions of faith in which the individuals who were often persecuted and deemed as damned [queer individuals, disabled people, people of colour, followers of different faiths] are now the referents in these concepts.Although subjectivity in opinion is key, the goal of this project is not to commit sacrilege or upset believers or followers of the Catholic faith and its different branches. Instead, my goal seeks to prompt dialogue, encouraging viewers to reconsider their perspectives and deepen their thoughts within the complexities of faith, tradition, and belief. Through this lens, we can rethink what it means to be damned—to reconsider who is excluded, who is included, and who ultimately holds the power to define worth.”
