A Contemplative Moment
Pope Francis makes a spontaneous visit to the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted one of his masterpieces, just after a Christmas Day address to the crowd in St. Peter's Square.
- Pope Francis in the U.S.
'Unimaginable' Access to Pope Francis Yields 68,000 Photos
Photographer Dave Yoder spent six months documenting the life of the pope and the Vatican for National Geographic.
For six months, National Geographic photographer Dave Yoder had extraordinary access to Pope Francis at the Vatican, an experience that he expects he will one day look back on as “surreal.” It took weeks to secure permission to shoot in some Vatican locations, but Yoder persevered. He befriended the pope’s personal photographer, which eventually allowed him to closely shadow the pontiff.
“Once they got to know me, and they trusted me, I was then able to do things that even now seem kind of unimaginable,” he says.
(Read "Will Pope Francis Change the Vatican? Or Will the Vatican Change Francis?")
For Yoder, the assignment was stressful and hard—not a spiritual experience. But he says that being in the presence of
