Elegba's Crossroads
Marital Crossroads
All of the elements within the compositions were originally transparencies (slides) or prints (made from slides), and later scanned. Within Photoshop, various image elements were resized, masked, color balanced and then placed on layers for further manipulation. The beach landscape image was copied, then flopped on its horizontal axis and merged with its original to form an island-like scene. The figure, a Ghanaian village chief, was substantially modified by dropping virtually all of its original color pixels save those which are visible in the image. The African elements were photographed in 1975.
The kitchen scene was augmented with two additional image elements and placed into the window and kitchen door, each with a different coloration. The couple, Juanita and Bill Grant, are friends from Newport News, VA, originally photographed as the organizers of The Los Aficionados Jazz Society for a documentary film project in the early 1970s. Although the narrative in this image is fictional, the couple's marriage was a harmonious one at the time. Within the window is a shot of a wedding conducted on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay of some friends from Hampton, and at the door is the esteemed jazz percussionist, Jack DeJonette, who was the subject of a Downbeat magazine cover in early 1980s.
These image compositions effectively demonstrate the superiority of digital manipulation of the original photographs over traditional, chemical-based darkroom methods.
Below, an example of Davis's image editing skills executed on an image originally edited for print media publication of Luis Taruc, former Filipino guerilla leader.
Breaking News! The above "Crossroads" images were featured in the exhibition, "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", at the Leica Gallery , New York City, April 11-May 17, 2003. Deborah Willis and Lisa Henry were co-curators. See Gallery announcement below left.
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