Mary Shannon Johnstone grew up “very, very, very Catholic,” but these days the Midwest native is more of the spiritual sort than a fan of organized religion.

She’s also a photographer, and a current exhibit of the Cary resident’s work reflects her desire to make Judeo-Christian messages accessible to the masses.

It’s her father’s desire too.

Johnstone and her father, Stephen Johnstone, collaborated on the “Blow the Candle Flame Sideways” exhibit currently showing at the Points of View photography gallery in Raleigh’s Glenwood South neighborhood.

“It’s like my voice, my expression. It’s how I make sense out of the world,” Johnstone said of her work.

The exhibit ties the 34-year-old’s images to her father’s poetic interpretations of Bible passages.

For example, her father’s interpretation of the Transfiguration passage from the New Testament — in which Jesus is revealed as the son of God — is paired with a photo Johnstone took in San Francisco in which a small, almost life-like statue is seen over the shoulder of a retreating man wearing denim.

Johnstone liked how the statue seemed to be looking over the man, protecting him.

The majority of the photos she matched with her father’s words were selected from images she had already taken, with the passages as inspiration.

The Bible is “just filled with poetry and metaphor,” Stephen Johnstone, 64, who is still a practicing Catholic.

He likes to take the passages and apply them to his daughter’s everyday life images because it makes the ancient verses more understandable and applicable to the present day.

The exhibition — born from talk during a family dinner years ago — was also a way for the father and daughter to get to know each other better.

They’ve always been close, but Stephen Johnstone said he has gained a greater respect for his daughter’s work and vision.

Creativity was something they always shared, as Johnstone grew up in Milwaukee, where her father still works at a public relations firm.

Johnstone said her father’s writing skills would come out in the form of the “Rhyming Rabbit” during Easter. Poems would be left for the kids with clues leading them to their baskets’ location.

Johnstone’s love of photography started with a Happy Meal. Around the age of 13 she received one of the popular fast-food meals with a camera as a prize.

She loved the way she could capture reality with a camera, but then tweak it to examine abstract themes. She went on to study photography at art institutes in Chicago and New York before being lured to North Carolina by its warm weather.

She currently teaches photography at Meredith College.

Her work has been exhibited locally as well as at galleries in Wilmington.

In March 2007 Johnstone exhibited a collection called “Silent Home” at Points of View. The collection included images of her family during a dark time after her parents’ separation after 28 years of marriage.