Customer Reviews

Monks of Dust: The Holy Men of Mount Athos

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The story behind these photos makes them all the more awe-inspiring, but their beauty stands alone. Superb photography and design, unique and amazing subject. If you're looking for something new from a photography book, this is it.

Besides acting as a unique and unparalleled historical document of people and a time gone by--one that has never before been seen--this book is filled with some of the most extraordinary photography I have ever seen. It's quite rare to see such a combination of history and art.

Images of faith and holiness are not hard to come buy, but to find historical collections of them is rather rare. Zimbardo does a masterful job in presenting the subject with as little interruption between the viewer and the subject as possible, capturing the spirit of the monks beautifully. In so doing, he transports us to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain of Eastern Orthodoxy where there exists a world of faith, sacrifice, and holiness that few of us will ever encounter in a personal way. Well worth viewing!

There is a similar collection of photos of Romanian monks under the title "Eikon" that is in print, but very difficult to find.

It is hard to explain the haunting beauty of these photographs without viewing them for oneself. I can only say that they powerfully capture the monk's holy pursuit of God and the sense of nearness to the heavenly kingdom with which they live. Even apart from any interest in Mount Athos and Orthodox monasticism I think this collection of photos would be of the utmost value to anyone interested in history and the depth of the human condition. For the Orthodox faithful these photos provide a certain kind of "iconography" - a theology in pictures that leads to meditation on the mystical transfiguration of the human person.