Sister Lauren Franko was 21 years old when she entered the cloistered Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in New Jersey; three weeks later, photographer Toni Greaves began following the early stages of her journey in monastic life.

“Prior to meeting the nuns, I’d been thinking about spiritual communities,” says Greaves, who was named one of PDN’s 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2009. “It’s fascinating to me, the choice these women have made in their lives. To have such conviction to choose to live your life as a cloistered nun, separated from the outside world, I think is quite extraordinary.”

When she first visited the monastery, Greaves was struck by the nuns’ vibrant energy. “They emanate a light and glow that is beyond what we generally see day-to-day out in ‘The World’ – as they call it. There’s a kind of warmth, joy, well-being and happiness that most people experience at the best of times, but for the nuns, the ‘best of times’ seems to be most of the time.”

Greaves has been working on Radical Love for the past three years – producing two feature stories, which were shown at Visa pour l’Image for the first time in 2011. During her visits, she could go pretty much wherever she wanted to, “although there were areas of the monastery that I knew were more personal. An example of this is a nun’s ‘cell’, which is her private retreat for meeting God, and a place where nobody else is allowed to enter.” But, even then, Greaves would be able to enter the cells of the nuns with whom she had a close relationship.

The main focus of Greaves’ work is Sister Lauren Franko, now called Sister Maria Teresa of the Sacred Heart. “When I started the project, she was the youngest nun, and had only been at the monastery for three weeks.” Her energy was incredible, says Greaves. “She was 21 when she entered, but she carries a child-like energy that really belies her age and exposes a curious juxtaposition of a girl finding herself as a woman, while at the same time finding herself as a nun. It’s amazing to me to have, at that age, such a firm sense of what you want to do in life.”

With her two features – Radical Love and Radical Love: The Promise – completed, Greaves is taking a step back from the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary. But she is sticking with her theme of spiritual community, ritual and identity. “I’m deeply interested in the way we, as beings on this planet, connect with energies that lie beyond our physical selves, whatever that may be. And how, within this, a personal sense of identity and connection are found. So that’s likely to continue as one theme of my personal work, at least for a while.”

Visit www.tonigreaves.com.

Image © Toni Greaves.

Image © Toni Greaves.

Image © Toni Greaves.