Fotoreproductie van twaalf foto's van Exeter en de kathedraal van Exeter before 1880

These twelve photographs of Exeter Cathedral, captured by Ch. Pumphrey & Co, present us with a compendium of sacred architecture, a testament to faith rendered in stone and light. Dominating these images is the pointed arch, an architectural motif deeply entwined with the Gothic style and symbolic of aspiration towards the divine. This reaching form, however, is not unique to Exeter; we see its echoes in the great mosques of Islamic Spain and the vaulted ceilings of ancient Roman basilicas. It appears that humanity, across cultures and epochs, has an innate impulse to build towards the heavens. It also reflects a psychoanalytic observation on the human psyche, the pointed arch—with its subliminal reference to the procreative architecture—reappearing in subconscious drives toward transcendence. The cathedral's form, etched in these photographs, reminds us that symbols are never static. They migrate, evolve, and take on new layers of meaning, connecting us to a shared cultural narrative that transcends time.