Portrait by Kristina Krug for Smithsonian Magazine. Kristina is a photojournalist and editorial photographer based in Nashville and Washington DC.
Client: Smithsonian
The often mysterious, medieval order of the Knights Templar inducts seven new postulants to knighthood during a ceremony in Nashville, Tennessee. Disbanded 700 years earlier, the modern order is undergoing a revival. New members are recruited strongly from officer classes of the U.S. military, and include generals, colonels, majors, and captains.
“The original Knights Templar–shorthand for the Order of the Poor Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem–were founded to protect Christian pilgrims on the roads of Palestine following the First Crusade; the group was named for its original headquarters on the Temple Mount. Members were often called ‘warrior monks,’ since they fought on the front line of the crusades and swore oaths of chastity, poverty and obedience.”