A Cathedral for the 21st Century

Bill Smith spent 30 years as CEO of the Bill Smith Group (BSG), an award-winning creative office specializing in visual books and digital contact. At BSG, Smith led a global team of over 100 writers, editors, designers, illustrators and photo professionals. Smith earned a Master of Arts in Oral History from Columbia University in 2015. Projects have included an oral history of artist Sarah Charlesworth, choreographer Edward Villella, the American Academy in Rome, and private oral histories for a number of philanthropic families.

Wayne Pearson was appointed Photographer in Residence for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 2017 after bringing a 40-plus year career as an internationally acclaimed commercial photographer to a close. Pearson is now concentrating on the types of photography that brought him into the medium all those years ago portraiture, travel, sacred architecture and the farmland of the Hudson Valley. Inspired by the work of the late Frederick H. Evans, Pearson has been directing his efforts the last half dozen years on possibly the greatest of the great cathedrals of the world, St. John the Divine.