Portrait Collage
La Recherche, (meaning The Search in French), is part of the portrait collage series, digitally combining my photography of the American South with historic imagery from the 19th century. In this piece the protagonist, a formally dressed African American gentleman in black tie and a velvet top hat, stands waist deep in the dark and dangerous water of a Louisiana swamp, gazing apprehensively from the foreground off into the distance. He holds a lit torch in his raised hand as he presses a rosary tightly against his tuxedo vest with the other. Although the object of his search remains unknown, the importance of it to him is made obvious by his expression and his stance. As the evening grows darker the hopes of a successful outcome before nightfall diminish. An onlooker in a canoe watches curiously from the back shadows of the swamp while an approaching storm adds to the urgency of the moment.