Mary Devotion Around the World | Explorer

[Music] I was approached by National Geographic last year to photograph people's relationship with Mary. I traveled all around the world to some of the most unexpected places to document this project. I have my own questions about my faith. I was raised Christian. I was, um, brought up in a family who believed in Mary, but I didn't know what to feel.

It's not that she didn't mean something; I guess I didn't necessarily understand my relationship with Mary. I didn't understand whether I had one, and that's why I struggled with this topic for so long. I spent most of this time traveling to all these places, frustrated because I couldn't feel. I couldn't feel a connection towards Mary.

I immersed myself for months at a time and isolated myself from absolutely everyone in order to do the work I do. I saw this woman bathing, and she had this little child with her. She embodied Mary; she represented what Mary meant, and that was enough. That was more than a picture. I really felt something, and I knew that I had to go back to the church where my grandmother used to sing in, and I was baptized.

For me, that meant something, something, and it didn't have to do with the story; it just was something that I knew I had to do for myself. [Music]