Test of Faith

"Lauren Pond's beautifully intimate portraits of spiritual yearning and loss should be reminders to all the rest of us that 'feeling after God' is dangerous business and was never intended to be otherwise." - Dennis Covington, author of Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia

"Mack Wolford and his family are holiness people who take up serpents as a simple act of obedience based upon their understanding of the Gospel of Mark. Lauren Pond's wonderful photos are visual windows into their lives. They may test your own faith. No holiness handler would urge you to violate your own faith. All would urge you simply to pray for, and perhaps, like Lauren, with, those whose faith seems distant from your own." - Ralph W. Hood Jr., Professor of Psychology and LeRoy A. Martin Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

“Lauren Pond plunges us into the hothouse atmosphere of the Wolfords' faith. Through her photographs, I can almost feel the physical strain of Mack's worship, and I long to hear the song that his mother, Snook, sings as he accompanies her on guitar. Who are these purposeful, vibrant people so different from myself? Test of Faith commands this question and prompts me to consider the basis and limitations of my own worldview.” - Peter Barberie, prize judge and Brodsky Curator of Photographs, Alfred Stieglitz Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art

"Visually stunning.... Pond is deeply aware of the ethical quandaries of photographing a person while he is dying, which she writes about in a theologically provocative afterword. Her photographic eye is more compassionate than voyeuristic, and she captures something of the essence of Wolford’s faith even while hesitating to pin it down." - Christianity Today

"Open the book, and whether you are of faith or not, see what Pond came to see: people of faith, enduring to an end we all face. See sign followers seeking only to be obedient to their God. See people believing, loving and caring, backsliding and returning to be baptized again. And yes, dying. See people so human in their failings and need for re-baptism that a common saying among believers (however baptized) is that even the fish know who they are. Pond’s magnificent book will introduce them to you." - Ralph W. Hood, Jr., Reading Religion

"To move through this book is to feel the author unwind herself.  We feel her taking the measure of the space in which her subjects live.  Services that were once photographed as delirious frenzy are now shown as infused with calm, though no less ecstatic.  We get a sense that Pond has arrived somewhere very different than where she sought to go when she began, and it also feels like the beginning of a larger story." - Leo Hsu, Fraction Magazine

"Capturing the true essence of this type of religious phenomenon is delicate. One must balance scene with sensitivity. Pond's work in Test of Faith is a well-blanced blend of both qualities. . . . She invites viewers, through her photography and dialogue, to embark on a journey to understand more deeply the people who take on these acts of faith and who choose to live within a particular lifestyle." - Chelsie Dubay, Journal of Appalachian Studies

"An insightful invitation into the paradoxical world of faith." - Randall Holm, Pneuma

"These images are wrenching and intimate. . . . Lauren Pond’s skill as a documentary photographer is considerable. . . ." - Carolyn Ware, Journal of Folklore Research