Hiss story: The last snake-handling church in West Virginia in pictures | Art and design

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Hiss story: The last snake-handling church in West Virginia – in pictures

Hidden in the Appalachian mountains is the House of the Lord Jesus, where serpents and their venom are all part of the service

@mlestone Main image: ‘A tradition more maligned than understood’ … an image from Gloryland. Photograph: Robert LeBlanc, courtesy of FaheyKlein Gallery, Los Angeles

Wed 25 Jan 2023 02.00 EST Last modified on Mon 6 Mar 2023 11.12 EST

  • Untitled #34, 2018

    Robert LeBlanc’s Gloryland provides viewers with an intimate perspective into the last remaining ‘signs following’ Pentecostal serpent-handling church of West Virginia, deeply hidden in the Appalachian mountains. Here, Snook spins with a fire bottle under her chin as Chris Wolford preaches while holding a copperhead snake at the House of the Lord Jesus in Squire, West Virginia. Robert LeBlanc’s Gloryland is at Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles until 28 January 2023. A bible replica of the book is available at the gallery and at the Cornerstore while supplies last. Unless stated, all photographs: Robert LeBlanc/Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles

  • Untitled #2, 2018

    Chris feeds his rattlesnake in the basement of the House of the Lord Jesus. A ‘signs following’ church refers to a group of Pentecostal churches, ministers and evangelists who are distinguished by their practice of drinking poison (usually strychnine) and handling poisonous serpents during their services

  • Untitled #47, 2022

    The photographs in Gloryland centre on the Wolford family, their humble church in Squire, West Virginia, and the upheld belief in the King James Bible. Pastor Chris Wolford is the current pastor of the House of the Lord Jesus

  • Untitled #41, 2022

    Robert LeBlanc writes: ‘The sound of rattlesnake rattlers fill the air, and multiple boxes are laid out behind the pulpit while the guitar begins to blare over the speakers at full volume. The music is a mix of delta blues and bluegrass, it’s a style of its own and specific to this type of worship’

  • Untitled #35, 2018

    The House of the Lord Jesus is one of only a few churches still practising serpent handling in the 21st century

  • Untitled #57, 2022

    Snook holds a fire bottle under her chin. Mark 16:17-18 is widely regarded as a foundational teaching that if the believers truly contained the Holy Spirit within them, they could handle poison, fire and venomous snakes without harm. Such practices are seen as evidence of salvation and a demonstration of faith

  • Untitled #55, 2022

    In the foreword to the book, Ralph W Hood Jr writes: ‘This is a sympathetic insight into a tradition more maligned than understood. This is their story and a view of a faith that many believe is fated to be abandoned. However, any obituary for this tradition is but foolish speculation. The obituary will never be written’

  • Untitled #33, 2018

    Ralph W Hood Jr: ‘The photographs focus on Chris Wolford and his church. A major theme in the book is that of abandonment. There are wonderful pictures of abandoned buildings, homes, and an abandoned coal loader. In West Virginia, coal is king. Corporate America takes the wealth derived from coal mining, ravishes the land, and abandons what is no longer needed – including those who risk their lives underground’

  • Untitled #49, 2021

    ‘However, abandonment is a dual theme. The simple fact is that believers in West Virginia have not abandoned God. Mired in poverty or not, believers in West Virginia are rich in their embodied faith’

  • Untitled #29, 2021

    Church member, Robert ‘Bobbie’ Ayers after a rattlesnake bite.

  • Untitled #48, 2021

    The seven seals were written out by Randy Wolford, Chris’s older brother, who was bitten by a rattlesnake and died during a sermon in 2012

  • Untitled #50, 2021

    Elijah is the nephew of Pastor Chris Wolford and one of the church members who may keep the church going

  • Untitled #39, 2022

    Chris reads his Bible in a mountain creek in Cucumber, West Virginia

  • Untitled #21, 2021

    An abandoned coal loader for hopper cars. Gloryland is a collaborative exhibition with Fahey/Klein Gallery, NFT marketplace SuperRare and art streaming platform Niio
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