'Guide, then, the people unto the garden of delight which God hath made the Throne of His Paradise.' Bahá'u'lláh
The relationship between spirit and form, the reflection in marble and stone and nature of the spiritual principles of beauty and proportion and balance which are necessary both in architecture and in human life, as described in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh, are presented in this breathtaking collection of photographs by the talented Brenton Edwards, who has captured the simplicity and elegance of the buildings and gardens in the Holy Land and elsewhere associated with the newest of the world's religions, the Bahá'í Faith. Edwards's photographs are complemented by a narrative providing a brief history of the religion.
'No created thing shall ever attain its paradise unless it appeareth in its highest prescribed degree of perfection . . . this crystal representeth the paradise of the stone whereof its substance is composed . . . So long as it was stone it was worthless, but if it attaineth the excellence of ruby -- a potentiality which is latent in it -- how much a carat will it be worth?' The Báb
Brenton Edwards first picked up a camera in 1982 when he was 18 years old. Six years later he landed his first job as a professional photographer at The Advertiser, where he is now the Sunday Picture Editor. He has also worked on The Times in London and published his own magazine.
It was following a pilgrimage to the Bahá'í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, in 1995 and subsequent requests for his photographs of that visit that Brenton decided to fulfil a dream and have the work published as a book. It took a second world journey to compile the collection published here.