Most of us had parents who taught us to thank our Maker each night as we put our heads on our pillows and drifted off to sleep. Thank him for the sunshine, rain, family, friends and the food on our tables. But thanking him beyond the basics has been the source of blessings for N.B. Baroody and his wife Margaret. They’ve known travel via their work with medical missions, and they’ve known beauty and goodness beyond what most people know in their lifetimes. Because of such benevolence, they thought nothing would be more awesome than using their passions, for which they had gifts and talents, to share with the world.
N.B. Baroody, a cardiologist in the Upstate, studied with Ansel Adams. He started his passion for photography with a Baby Brownie, converting his childhood closet to a dark room and his visions to realities with glossy finishes.
For so many years, his artistic talent was just that — a talent. His life was punctuated by art, but the stories were told via his dedication to the medical field. But when so many friends, family and acquaintances finally said, “You need to pursue this,” N.B. and Margaret said, “Why not?”
They self-published their first book, In Search of His Image: A Photographic Journey, in October of 2007. They were selling this trinket out of their cars and in local bookshops on their own accord, and by the grace of God it took off beyond their wildest dreams. They had notes and e-mails full of thank yous and complements from around the globe. People were picking up their work in local shops, reading through it, letting it in and buying third and fourth copies to send to college roommates, cousins, grandparents, bosses and children.
So the blessing of this little book veered their course toward publication of story number two, The Unexpected Visitor. Margaret says, “It is about how, through the people we meet, nature, moments and events of our lives, we have unguarded moments. Some of them occur comically, some tragically and some are ironic, but all of us have these moments where we can look back. We may not notice it now, but when we look back there is an element of the Divine.”
Through a few of N.B.’s personal comments and a plethora of Margaret’s third person commentary, a narrative unfolds. Each photograph has a rich story and a personal history that provide windows, like the opening of a shutter, that close quickly around these minutes in the Baroodys’ lives.
From the first page of this black and white saga, the faith-based orientation of the images is felt. As Margaret says, her husband had a gentleness of spirit that everyone knew and absorbed. Ironically, this gentleness of spirit is felt through his snapping of the camera. Or perhaps not so ironically, I should think. He has a deep understanding and appreciation for the simplest pieces of his surroundings. From the sand dunes, to the Parisian churches, to the women in the marketplace of Egypt, to a broken down staircase, his depiction of life is unarguably honest.
While most images are rooted in our southern landscape, where Margaret says black and white photography is slowly gaining momentum, many are imported from their global journeys on medical missions. The pages are wrought with behind the scenes stories, wishes and laughs that enveloped the pictures before they were developed — each paired with the eloquence of a Bible verse or poem. Often times, the minutes before dawn, the tears of a child, the cross of a church, the wrinkles of a woman’s face and the cracks in old brick remind us of life. A life a Creator who, as Margaret puts it, “is involved in creativity for all of us” has blessed us with. In this richly artistic work, a family of faith comes together telling a story and giving those who are too busy a glimpse at the moments and events in life that are Spirit filled. Margaret explains such times by saying, “Looking at nature and the complexities and the charms of it, just focuses you on what has been created. Amazing.”
Purchase The Unexpected Visitor |
