Photo essay: Ritchie Elder’s images of Edinburgh faith communities

Imam Muhammad Hamzah Rumi, Portobello Mosque, Edinburgh. Photograph by Ritchie Elder

An intimate six-month project reveals the religious diversity of the Scottish capital

Edinburgh-based photographer Ritchie Elder describes himself as a neutral observer. He didn’t grow up within a faith and wondered, at first, what that meant for his long-term project centred around religion in the Scottish capital.

After asking himself a fundamental question — “can I really document these groups when I’m not part of them?” — he settled on a simple approach: listen carefully and photograph with good intentions.

Faith, a documentary series created over six months of the final year of his photography degree course at Edinburgh College, has placed Elder on the shortlist for Portrait of Britain and won gold in the people photography category at the AOP Student Awards 2025.

The project takes in mosques, churches, temples and community halls across the Scottish capital. Growing up in Leith, a port area in north Edinburgh, Elder was surrounded by cultural diversity, but had rarely stepped into such spaces. Being granted entry, he says, felt like a gift.

“Not everyone gets to experience what it’s like inside a Buddhist temple and I had the opportunity,” he says.

The visits often revealed unexpected details about the people he photographed. In that Buddhist temple, the nun guiding him casually mentioned she had once been a model. At Portobello Mosque, he learned that the imam he was photographing was also an optician — a reminder of the ordinary, human lives often found behind spiritual vocations.

Across different rituals and traditions, what struck him most was the shared language of prayer and congregation. In a time of rising hostility toward some faith communities, Elder’s work turns its attention to the common ground found in everyday devotion and the people he met along the way.

“I’m just a normal guy from Edinburgh and they welcomed me in,” he says.

Islam

A worshipper at Portobello Mosque. Photograph by Ritchie Elder

Alaa Haroun, at Water of Leith in the Stockbridge district of Edinburgh. Photograph by Ritchie Elder

Judaism

Rabbi David Rose of Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation, which meets at Edinburgh Synagogue in the city’s Newington district. Photograph by Ritchie Elder

A worshipper from the Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community, which meets at St Mark’s Unitarian Church in the city’s Old Town. Photograph by Ritchie Elder