Bible Album: Art Book – New Heart English Bible Edition

In a true labor of love, Esdras Pierre Etrenne created Bible Album to “shine a light on the gentle beauty of scripture.” By combining significant passages from the Bible with awe-inspiring photographs of the nature world, he has certainly succeeded in his goal of drawing a parallel between the Word of God as set down in scripture and the Word of God as made manifest on Earth and, more broadly, in the known universe. The words and photographs together offer a real feast for the eyes, and those looking for a compendium of thought-provoking Bible passages are sure to enjoy this book.

All sixty-six books of the Bible are represented in Bible Album, wherein each book has its own dedicated chapter and each chapter presents twenty-five key passages that have been hand-picked by Etrenne and matched with relevant photographs. The passages themselves are drawn from the New Heart English Bible, while the photographs are the work of various photographers whom Etrenne has chosen to feature in the book. It would have been nice if the photographers were named, either on their individual photographs or in a list at the end of the book, to allow readers to look up more of their work.

In addition to putting considerable thought into which passages from each book of the Bible should be included in Bible Album, Etrenne has also taken pains to pair many of the chosen passages with photographs that reflect their tone and meaning, which adds depth to the work. For instance, on the most basic level, Genesis 1:1—“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”—is accompanied by a high-definition photograph of the Earth taken from space, while in a slightly more abstract manner, Obadiah 1:21—“Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be the Lord’s”—is matched with a landscape photograph taken at sunrise that features lush hills in the background.

Moreover, while not all the photographs do echo the meaning of the passages that they accompany, which would have been undeniably difficult to achieve in cases such as Revelation 12:7 (“There was war in the sky. Michael and his angels made war on the serpent. The serpent and his angels made war”), they do all reflect the beauty and majesty of the natural world. An additional touch that would have been helpful would be the inclusion of some degree of commentary on the included passages. This would have added another layer to the book and given readers more to ponder on. Still, Bible Album is a beautiful tribute to the scripture that is bound to appeal to those looking for selected key passages to consider.