La Vita Monastica (The Monastic Life) is my photographic study of the cloistered community of Benedictine nuns at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut. The roots of The Abbey of Regina Laudis, founded in 1947, have their origin in the ancient Abbey of Notre Dame de Jouarre, which was founded in the 7th century and is located northeast of Paris. This personal project started as a single assignment. Many of the images here are being shown for the first time.

Drepung Monastery was founded in 1416 near Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Gomang Dratsang or College is the oldest of the 4 colleges of Drepung. In 1959, before the invasion of Communist China, Drepung monastery had more than 10,000 monks. Gomang alone had about 5,500. Since its beginning, Gomang College has produced many eminent Buddhist masters and has been a very important Tibetan and Buddhist learning center. Each of the colleges of Drepung has its speciality and the focus of Gomang is philosophy: logic and debate. Only about 100 monks managed to escape with His Holiness the Dalai Lama when he fled Tibet in 1959. They lived first in Boxa, North India, and then, in 1969, 62 of the surviving Gomang monks were given 42 acres of land in Mundgod, south India. There they started to rebuild Drepung Gomang Monastic Dratsang in its present location. Today more than 1500 monks live on these few acres.

This has been a personal project I have worked on off and on for over 10 years. I am fascinated with the zeal these pilgrims have for the apparitions. For centuries the faithful have looked to the Virgin Mary, Miriam of Nazareth, for comfort and healing. Around the world, reports of Mary visitations, apparitions, have been reported. When a claim of an apparition is reported, pilgrims and the curious, sometimes thousands, arrive within days. In 2003, a Vatican yearbook revealed that between 1905 and 1995 there were 295 reported apparitions, only 11 of which were recognized as genuine by the Roman Catholic Church. In January 2009 it was reported that Pope Benedict XVI is declaring a 'holy war' against people who claim falsely that the Virgin Mary is appearing to them. The previous Pope, John Paul II, was more supportive and had visited a few apparition sites around the world. The reports of apparitions are sure to continue and the faithful will continue to seek out the Mother of Jesus.

The annual celebration paying homage to St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, that takes place in the New England fishing port of Gloucester, Massachusetts.