Christ with a nazi, Jesus playing cards and Monopoly: Photographer focuses on the bigger picture (PHOTOS and VIDEO)

As Jesus strolls down a country road with a Nazi soldier — carrying his gun for him  — photographer Michael Belk wants observers to ponder forgiveness.

 “Once they read the message on forgiveness, then they will understand the image,” said the Santa Rosa Beach-based international fashion photographer.

Belk’s usual clients over the past 30-plus years are models flaunting fashion on the pages of magazines, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ. But the photog is taking a hiatus from the fashion scene to release his “Journeys With the Messiah” fine art photography collection.

Jesus walking in harmony with a Nazi in an image called “The Second Mile” is one of the many eyebrow-raising pictorials in his series that is meant to “market Jesus” in a 21st century kind of way.

The collection will be released next week on 9/11, in the midst of  the worst recession since the Great Depression.

To Belk, the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

“The idea is to do it in an artful form, not to be controversial,” Belk told The Log.

He said he noticed how people in New York City seemed to be “looking for something” right after the attack on the World Trade Center.

On the eighth anniversary of 9/11, Belk’s vision to create images of Jesus in a modern-day element is coming to fruition. He’s had the idea in mind for several years and even ran it by people when he ran photo galleries in Seaside and WaterColor.

Belk was typically too busy with work and travel to act on his idea, until late 2007. Clients in the fashion business started fading away for Belk and he saw it as God opening the door for him to begin creating the series.

“I am a Christian and have been an increasingly devout Christian for over 20 years,” he said.

Belk feels that his capabilities behind a camera give him the opportunity to share messages of Jesus in a unique way that is highly relevant to today.

“Religion gives Jesus a bad name,” Belk said. “Jesus did not come to start a religion and divide the denominations. He came to talk about God to everyone.”

Belk drew on his years in the marketing arena when creating the images, simply abiding by one major rule in the industry.

“If you can’t stop people long enough, you can’t have people hear your message,” he said. “They stop at things that are pertinent to them or catch their attention.”

Belk grabs attention and erases the lines between the various denominations in his photo “Embrace,” in which Jesus has a big smile on his face and is posing for a cozy group shot with a Muslim and a Buddhist among others to show that all men are blended together under God’s master plan for mankind.

It hasn’t escaped Belk’s mind that some of his images will be viewed as offensive. Once he started to see the end result of the photos he created he started to think, “This is strong stuff ... wow, this could get me shot.”

Even his friends showed concern for what Belk was planning to release with the series.

“Some of them are pretty touchy. We didn’t plan them to have shock value,” he said. “But they are what they are.”

Belk said there was a message in mind before each image was created. The photos were shot on location in the town of Matera in Italy, the same backdrop of Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ.” A well-known Italian actor portrays Christ in Belk’s photos.

Some photos are based on lessons from the Bible.

In “Quandary,” Jesus is talking to a rich gentleman with a Ferrari and a beautiful woman in the passenger seat.

Much like the rich young ruler in Matthew 19:16-26, who is asking Jesus what he must do to have eternal life, the man in the Ferrari is a representation of people today and their attachment to worldly possessions.

The photo is meant to make people examine their lifestyle for personal roadblocks to eternity.
Other messages behind Belk’s photos are more general, such as issues of addiction, poverty, hypocrisy and materialism. Belk said greed is what led to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and to the economic collapse of today.

As people’s lives have changed during the recession, Belk said people are left wondering who is in control anymore.

In “The Winning Hand” in which Jesus is involved in a game of poker, Belk conveys how life is like a card game and we all want the winning hand. Belk believes God wants to play the hand for us, no matter what has been dealt.

“I’ve been running into more people whose lives have been changed for the better since they lost everything,” he said. “They can’t rely on themselves. They have to rely on something bigger.”

Want a tour?
For a link to the virtual exhibit of Michael Belk’s “Journeys With the Messiah” fine art photography collection, click here.