Press Photographs as Devotional Images

I attend to a pair of black and white 8x10 photographs from the archives of the Boston Herald. Though I encountered these on eBay on the same thrilling night, they curiously came from two different sellers and were taken by different photographers. In the first, dated November 25, 1990, young men gather in front of a mural they helped to paint emblazoned with the words “LATINO POWER.” The caption slip taped to the back bears the disjointed subject line, “Morales shot by cop fall out.” In the second, dated March 25, 1991, Rev. Jack Roussin leads a procession down the same sidewalk, his vestments billowing in front of the mural.

The photos tell the story of the Neighborhood Way of the Cross at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Parish in Roxbury, Boston. Parishioners initiated the Via Crucis in the 1970s as a protest against gang violence. Winding through the streets each Good Friday, the Stations are places that map the neighborhood’s own passion. In 1991, the ritual took on new urgency after teenage parishioner Hector Morales was killed by police a block from the church. That spring, the corner where Hector was shot marked Station IV, “Jesus Meets His Mother.” Hector’s mother led the prayer. Through these images, I consider press photos as devotional objects—intentionally public-facing images of public faith practices. In turn, I examine eBay searching as both historical research method and devotional practice in its own right—the meandering seeking, material transmission, retrieval, and imaginative reinterpretation of Catholic memory.