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 his 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 in real-time. Davis is pictured with Chief Gabla (right) of Christian Village, Accra, Ghana, 1975. Another portrait of the Chief was used in the Crossroads image above.

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.

PRICE $LASHED:Prints are now $125 each US and Canada via courier service FEDEX: $75 Europe and other locations via courier service FEDEX: $60 International AIRMAIL Parcel Post: $40 Within the Philippines via Air 21 or LBC courier services: 480 Pesos or $10

	If using PAYPAL.COM, click the button above, login and click the Send Money tab and use the following email address: chdavisjr@pldtdsl.net Personal checks are accepted but will delay your order considerably until said check clears Chase Bank. Send checks made payable to: COLLIS DAVIS, 10 Coronado Ct, Unit 10-3, Madison, WI 53705, USA

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.

Continuing in the jazz vein, “Roy” on the A-Train Line, Brooklyn, NY, was shot many years ago while I was still in graduate film school at New York University. I added the Lonnie Johnson blues lyric to give voice to the pathos of this musician but NYC’s poor in general.

This image may be purchased for $125 on request, using PayPal.com as the transactional medium. 16” X 20” would be the ideal print size and it would conform to the same shipping and packaging specifications mentioned above re. the Yoruba Crossroads image.

© 2005-2018 Collis H. Davis, Jr.
All rights reserved.