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Eschewing more widely available digital technologies for the manual processes that first defined the art of photography, Raena Abella used the alchemy of the collodion process and ambrotypes to delve into the realm of the sacred. Ambrotypes were first introduced in England in the 1850’s, an early photographic technique that created positive images on glass using a variant of the wet plate collodion process. In 1, 2018 the repeated process of capturing the same image of a sacred relic becomes a form of meditation, as well as a contemplation of faith and spirituality. Symbolizing both our mortality as well as our longing for the eternal, the multiple images of the hand in this work recalls the long history and tradition of repetitive prayer in Christianity.