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YORUBA CROSSROADS is a digital photo assemblage that is output as a 30” X 12” archival C-Print from a Lamda Printer on a choice of glossy or matte printing paper. Larger prints available by request.
Concept: “Yoruba Crossroads” creates a fantastical, one-of-a-kind landscape inspired by the Yoruba myth of Elegba, deity of the crossroads of life. All of the elements within this composition were originally transparencies (35mm slides) or prints, and which were later scanned. Within Photoshop, various image elements were resized, masked, color balanced and placed on layers for further manipulation. The beach landscape was copied, then flopped on its horizontal axis and merged with its original to form an island-like scene. The image of the figure, a Ghanaian village chief (of Accra), was substantially modified by dropping virtually all of its original color pixels except those which are visible in the image. The African elements were photographed in 1975. This image effectively demonstrates the superiority of digital manipulation of the original photographs over traditional , chemical-based darkroom methods.
Collis H. Davis, Jr., a long-time photographer and documentary filmmaker of African-American descent who now resides in the Philippines, was inspired to create this work after learning about the pantheon of Haitian Loas or deities during the production of Voyage of Dreams, a 30-minute US Public Television documentary about the plight of Haitian boat people. He later went on to create an interactive, multi-linear narrative video called “Elegba’s Strategem” which drew upon Yoruba mythology, and which incorporated what Davis terms “Backtalk Cinema”, a speech-recognition system used to redirect the storyline of the video.
Notes about shipping: All prints will be shipped rolled in a water-tight plastic tube, buyers have a choice of shipping via AIRMAIL International Postal Service or courier service such as FEDEX. Courier-based deliveries take 3 days to the US and Canada while European deliveries take about 4-6 days.
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