Francisco González Pérez  

photographer, Spain.

Francisco González Pérez was born in 1960, in Cňrdoba, Spain, where he currently lives and works as a photographer for the city newspaper.

Arquitectos de Unidad (Architecture of Unity) featuring his photographs of the seven Bahá`í Temples around the world was published in 2001 by Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía.

His book of photos, Mujeres del Mundo, Retratos del Alma (Women of the world, Portraits of the soul) published by Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer (Andalusian Institute of Women) and Arca Editorial (Bahá`í Publisher) in 2003 is dedicated to the Bahá`í principle of gender equality.

An other book of photography, La Reina del Carmelo (The Queen of Carmel) will be published in 2003 by Arca Editorial. Dedicated to the terraces of Mount Carmel, the book consists of a foreword by the architect Fariborz Sahba, biographies of Bahá`u`lláh and The Báb, an explanation of The Tablet of the Carmel, The Tablet of The Carmel itself, and is illustrated with more than 130 photographs, including a number of portraits of the participants at the opening of the terraces in May, 2001.

Currently he is working on a book project about the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, inspired by Abd`ul-Bahá 's writings about them.

Left: Photographs by Francisco González Pérez from his book, La Reina del Carmelo (The Queen of Carmel), showing a details of the terraces with the Shrine of the Báb in the background.

The World of Spirituality Unveiled - Photographs by Francisco Gonzalez

Reviewed by Tarasieh Vahdat, Ecuador.

Spanish photographer Francisco Gonzalez was waiting for the perfect moment. That moment came as the rising sun shone its soft rays over the Lotus Temple in New Delhi. The resulting image is one of the photographs in an exhibition currently on tour in Ecuador. Called "Architects of Unity" (Arquitectos de Unidad), the exhibition features Bahá'í Houses of Worship throughout the world.

Photographing such subjects is in contrast to covering national and international events major Spanish newspapers such as El Pais, El Mundo and Tiempo. However, it has been a project Francisco Gonzalez has dreamed of for many years. "For me photography is the best way to express and convey my feelings to people," said Francisco Gonzales.

A photographer with over 20 years experience, Francisco Gonzalez, said that on his visits to the temples, he met people coming from all kinds of ethnic and religious background. "At the temple in the United States for example I met a woman who explained to me that although she did not believe in God, she had been visiting the temple for 30 years because she felt that in the silence of the moments she spent there she discovered some sort of indescribable harmony, something unique she had never experienced anywhere else in the world,"

he said.

Tarasieh Vahdat, the organizer of the tour and a member of Bahá'í community of Quito, said the 70 photographs, which arrived in the country through the sponsorship of UNESCO and the Spanish embassy in Ecuador, had travelled to six other cities.

including Guayaquil and Otavalo, and had attracted more than 10,000 visitors.

"These remarkable pictures not only introduce beautiful buildings to the viewer," said Ms. Vahdat. "The Houses of Worship, as the Bahá'í writings say, are the 'Dawning-places of the praise of God', a place where one may find peace to freely commune with God".

The Lotus temple in India is one of seven Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world. The others are in Australia Germany, Panama, Uganda, the United States and Western Samoa.

All the temples share the common feature of having nine entrances, thus symbolizing the great world religions, as well as the diversity of the human race and its essential oneness and unity.

While working on his project, Francisco Gonzalez was also inspired to photograph women who were involved with social-economic projects throughout the world. His exhibition, "Mujeres del Mundo: Paisajes del Alma" (Women of the World: Landscape of the Soul) is currently traveling around Spain, visiting more than 20 cities and towns. For this project Francisco Gonzalez received an award from the Andalucia Institute for Women.