Trinity Church in Copley Square

Author's Comments

What I love about Trinity is that it gives you two buildings for the price of one. The church itself is the obvious subject, and Richardson's stonework rewards close attention - the way the rough sandstone catches afternoon light, the deep recesses around the entrance, the tower that anchors the whole composition like a held note. But the photograph I keep making is the one where the church appears twice. The Hancock Tower behind it is essentially a mirror, and on a clear afternoon in late spring or fall, when the sun comes around to light the western face, the reflection goes sharp and strange. The Romanesque arches break across the glass grid of the seventies office tower, and a hundred years of architectural argument compresses into a single frame. Stand on the south side of the square. Work the angle until the reflection lines up the way you want it. The crowds in Copley are real and mostly unavoidable, but they happen at ground level and the composition you are after is mostly above them. Late afternoon is when the light does the work for you. Winter is underrated here - the low sun hits the facade longer and the bare trees in the square stop competing with the architecture.

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