The Baptism
30” x 40”
Photo collage combining historic imagery with my photograph of the American South.

A late summer hurricane draws near, and the ensuing rains push the river beyond its banks. As the levees are breached upstream, the church and the lives of its parishioners downstream are in peril. While the storm approaches and catastrophe looms, an impromptu baptism is conducted in the turbulence of the rising river. A skeptical young man, whose washing away of sin and access to salvation is of utmost importance to the presiding priest, stands unclothed and blindfolded in the murky waters. Musicians signify the importance of the ceremony as a small boat, ark-like with its pair of rescued goats, acts as a pulpit for the vestured bishop and his plume of incense. A sudden bolt of lightning marks the urgency of the situation.