Robert Weingarten: Another America

For 4 years, Robert Weingarten photographed Amish communities in Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. In 80 photographs, Another America captures the beauty and simplicity of a way of religious life that has been sustained for more than three centuries. Descendants of the followers of Jakob Ammann, a Swiss Mennonite bishop of the 17th century, the Amish arrived in America in the early 18th century in search of religious freedom. The Amish have their roots in the Mennonite community. Both were part of the early Anabaptist movement in Europe, which took place at the time of the Reformation. The Anabaptists believed that only adults who had confessed their faith should be baptized, and that they should remain separate from society at large. They uphold basic Bible doctrines, believe strictly in following Christ’s example of non-violence, and stress humility, family, and community.
As Los Angeles County Museum of Art photography curator Robert A. Sobieszek writes, “Robert Weingarten’s photographs of Amish communities are riveting testaments to the enduring virtues of this religious group’s spiritual and bucolic lifestyle. His black-and-white images of the pastoral landscape are in perfect accord with the Amish’s profoundly simple faith. In the broad spectrum of photographic grays that exists between the darkest black and the brightest white, this California photographer has eloquently evoked the rich and subtle harmonies of a people who shy away from everything modern and worldly while cherishing the traditional, the spiritual, and the teachings of the Bible…These images are romantic, certainly, but they also respectfully bear witness to a more calm and serene way of life — farm houses quietly shrouded in early morning mist, graphic arrays of empty carriages, rustic textures of weathered barns and silos, uniformed young girls attending school, and gravely thoughtful adults at country auctions are just some of the subjects he shares with us.”