Book Review | Stone and Candle by Ted and Nune
December 22, 2025
I’m just now getting my hands on a copy of Stone and Candle by Ted and Nune, published by Kehrer in 2023. The pair traveled extensively, and often in the winter, to photograph Armenia’s monasteries. The structures are mostly shown from a distance, so that one feels the grandeur and the isolation in the expanse of countryside around each cloister.
In some cases, the stones of the monasteries seem to grow up from the rocks and cliffs beneath them, the spires shooting up from the land like trees from the soil, like they’ve fused with their natural surroundings over time.
The book is more straightforward than many contemporary photography books, with its classic layout, and the historical and architectural notes on each spread. The photographers are in awe of their subject, and they pass that kind of holy solemnity on to the viewer without many interventions. It’s really a book for lovers of history and architecture. The personal text at the end of the book, written by the photographers, comes as a gorgeous surprise, and adds much depth to the work.
Ted and Nune chose to trek to these remote locations during the coldest months, when many of the monastery grounds are carpeted by snow. Something about this significant detail awakens my imagination within the scenes. The snow covers over layers of time. I begin to inhabit the timeworn spaces, my mind filling them with clerics in their dark cassocks as they might appear in an architectural rendering that’s come to life. I see the monks reading, walking, clearing the way for each other on the stone paths, and finding refuge in the safety of the prayers in the church.
These structures endured through famine and war and revolution, housing centuries of prayer. Whatever else they may have seen, they have sheltered something good that comes from our race; science, learning, scholarship, musical composition, and culture all flourished within these walls. I feel grateful that Ted and Nune did the work to carefully record so many of the remaining Armenian monasteries, so we can now travel there in our minds. When I look carefully through the book, I hear deep silence. But I can also hear ages upon ages of singing.
-Lisa Woodward
The book is sold out, but you can see more of the ancient monasteries and work by Ted and Nune here.