Maxo Vanka

This week's photo spot is Millvale's St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church.

St. Nicholas is covered top to bottom with Maxo Vanka's unique murals. There are eleven murals that were painted in the spring of 1937 which depict the old and new world along with Maxo Vanka's view of the strong mother. In 1941 Maxo Vanka returned to work on 11 more murals.

These murals are not your usual "I love Jesus" murals they're controversial and depict social commentary about war, capitalism, and the changing of times. Maxo Vanka was given free range when he was hired to paint the inside of St. Nicholas Church and he took advantage of this opportunity.

I'm giving you a heads up this is hard to photograph. The lighting in the church is useless. So finding available light is key to making good photographs here. The best part about photographing here is that every inch has a new surprise and holds something interesting in it. This is where as a photographer you can take advantage of the small space and use it to compose great images.

Maxo Vanka has set up a beautiful canvas for photographers to work with and its our responsibility to thank him with each photograph. That's why I picked St. Nicholas as the photo spot of the week. It holds certain treasures that not many people know about and it is filled with an outrageous presence that it takes a minute to compose yourself when in it.

So take advantage of this great opportunity to experience Maxo Vanka's extraordinary work. You can visit the church's website http://www.vankamurals.org/ or visit Pittsburgh Center for the Arts which is holding a Maxo Vanka Exhibit http://pittsburgharts.org/gallery_vanka.php .