About Us
The founder and her trusty Canon in Oxford.
A tripod among tombstones at Oddington Church.
Admiring frescoes in Spiez, Switzerland.
Conquering Casablanca Cathedral, Morocco.
Stalking standing stones: Hurlers, Cornwall.
In the mikveh of the Alte Synagogue, Worms.
Exploring a snowy Liebrauenkirche in Trier.
Thank you for visiting Sacred Destinations Images! Here is some background information about this website and its founder.
About Sacred Destinations Images
Sacred Destinations Images was launched in November 2008. An expansion of the Sacred Destinations website, it is a specialized image resource covering religious art, architecture, history, archaeology and travel. The collection grows almost daily, bringing us closer to our goal of creating the most comprehensive and highest quality image database of religious places in the world. We hope this database will continue to be a useful resource to publishers, photo researchers, teachers, scholars, religious leaders, or anyone who shares our interest in these fascinating places.
We began licensing our photos by request from visitors to Sacred Destinations in 2007 and many have already been published in books, journals and magazines. As our photo library expanded to over 10,000 images and licensing orders continued to increase, the need became apparent for a dedicated website where photos can be conveniently searched, licensed and downloaded. This led to the launch of Sacred Destinations Images the following year.
The Sacred Destinations Images database centers on photos by the Sacred Destinations team (see below) but also includes contributions from carefully selected photographers. Our contributing photographers - who include talented amateurs as well as professionals - are distinguished by their special interest and artistic eye for our particular subjects. And we believe Sacred Destinations Images is distinguished from most other stock photo agencies in the following ways:
Broader and Deeper Coverage. Our unique specialization allows us to cover more sites and more details than most stock image providers. We don't just cover the most famous monuments, but also lesser-known gems of artistic, historic or religious significance. And for most monuments we provide not only the standard views but also closer looks at sculptures, mosaics, paintings and stained glass in all their glorious detail.
More Detailed Information. Because the contributors to this website are passionate about art, architecture and history as well as photography, our images have detailed, knowledgable captions and highly specific keywords that make it easier to find what you need - in addition to basic location data, virtually all photos are labeled with dates, artists, styles, and topics. Also, for western art, we have begun to implement the excellent ICONCLASS system of classification in our keywords.
Quick, Personal Service. We have tried to make the Sacred Destinations Images website as efficient as possible, but this does not mean real humans are hard to find. We take care of all orders personally and you can e-mail us anytime with questions or requests for image research, details about a photo, special licensing needs, photo editing (we'll do most minor adjustments free with purchase), comments about the website or anything else. You can contact us here.
Reasonable Prices. Many photographers' websites and stock image libraries charge several hundred dollars per image; our prices start as low as $50 and are based solely on usage (not photo size, photographer's whim, or anything else). We also allow free use for certain academic and religious purposes.
How it Works
Find Photos. The entire collection of Sacred Destinations Images is publicly available for viewing. You can find photos by consulting our Stock List, entering keywords in the search box at the top of every page, or conducting an Advanced Search. You can also contact us for image research or requests. For special projects, photographers may be available for hire.
Simple Order. If you find a photo you want to license, simply click the "License This Photo" button on the photo page and fill out a short form. You can enter multiple ID numbers in the Photo field if you wish. You do not have to sign up with a username and password to place an order, but doing so has several advantages (see below).
Pay and Download. Shortly after we receive your license request, we will send you an e-mail invoice using PayPal or Google Checkout (your choice). The payment is handled entirely by these services and we will never see your credit card information. (We can usually accommodate other forms of payment when necessary, but strongly prefer the electronic methods for their greater efficiency and security.) Upon payment of the invoice, you will receive a message notifying you that your image is available for download and providing a link so you can do so.
Register. Creating an account on Sacred Destinations Images has several advantages. It allows you to save photos to a lightbox, which you can access and edit anytime. This can be just for your reference, but it also functions as a shopping cart - you can conveniently order multiple images by clicking the "License These Photos" button in your lightbox. And whenever you place an order while logged in (whether for one photo or several), the form will automatically populate with your contact information. You will also have your own account page that contains statistics on your pending orders, past orders, and preferences, plus direct access to high-resolution versions of all images you've purchased from us.
About the Founder
Sacred Destinations and Sacred Destinations Images are administered by Holly Hayes, with invaluable computer support and co-photography work from her husband David. We are both natives of the beautiful state of Oregon (USA), where we currently live. Below is a brief summary of Holly's academic and travel background for anyone who might be interested.
I earned my undergraduate degree (B.A. Religion) in Oregon in 1999, followed by a master's degree (M.Th. Systematic Theology) from the University of Edinburgh in 2000. Next I returned to Oregon and got a "real job" with the state government for a few years to pay off my student loans, while also teaching religious history part-time at a local university. I married David in 2004 (in a historic chapel, of course) and in April 2005 I founded Sacred Destinations, an educational and travel website about religious places.
In September 2005, David and I moved to England so I could study religious history at the University of Oxford. My area of emphasis was Early Christianity and my dissertation was on the transition from Greco-Roman religions to Christianity in Ephesus. (Meanwhile, David worked at the O2 office just outside London.) My original plan was to earn a Ph.D and become a university professor, but after successfully completing the two-year master's degree (M.Phil Ecclesiastical History) portion in June 2007, I decided to pause for a bit to focus on the Sacred Destinations project and other freelance academic endeavors.
We spent the following summer in a rented flat in the lovely village of Great Milton, Oxfordshire, during which I worked full-time on Sacred Destinations and we traveled as much as possible. Most of our free time throughout our stay in England was spent photographing churches, cathedrals and museums, with an occasional trip farther afield (including Wales, Ireland, Rome, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Morocco).
After my graduation ceremony at Oxford in November 2007, we embarked on a road trip in continental Europe (Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands) for nearly a year. Then, after nearly a year on the road and three years overseas, we finally returned home to Oregon in the autumn of 2008. The primary focus of our European tour and most of our free time in England was photographing historic religious sites; with both of us wielding digital cameras, this resulted in approximately a gazillion photos on our hard drive.
A year later, I am still working on processing, captioning and uploading our photos to Sacred Destinations and this photo library. The Newest page shows the most recent uploads. You can also check out the Personally Visited list on Sacred Destinations to see all the places we photographed and read about our travels on the Sacred Destinations Blog (see especially the Archives by Place on the right). And of course, you can follow me on Twitter.