Robert Weingarten

For four years, Robert Weingarten photographed Amish communities in Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Gathered in Another America, Weingarten's photographs of the Amish capture the beauty and simplicity of a way of religious life that has been sustained for more than three centuries. Descendants of the followers of Jakob Ammann, a Swiss Mennonite bishop of the seventeenth century, the Amish came to America in the early eighteenth century in search of religious freedom. Their history began with the Anabaptist movement in Europe, which took place at the time of the Reformation. The Anabaptists believed that only adults who had confessed their faith should be baptized, and that they should remain separate from the larger society. They uphold basic Bible doctrines; believe strictly in following Christ's example of nonviolence; and stress humility, family, and community. Catholics and Protestants executed many early Anabaptists as heretics, and others fled to the mountains of Switzerland and southern Germany. Here began the Amish tradition of farming and holding worship services in homes rather than churches.