Jana Braziel, author of Riding with Death: Vodou Art and Urban Ecology in the Streets of Port-au-Prince, explains the cover of her study of urban art in Haiti--why she chose a vivid photograph by John Cussans.
When I first saw the digital image of John Cussans'
spectacular photograph of the Grand Rue alit at night and alive with creative,
artistic energy, I knew that it was one-of-a-kind: the beauty of the
Port-au-Princian sky with the cerulean blue-hued light and end-of-sunset
shadows cast over the city from the surrounding peaks of Gros Morne; the
labyrinthian path leading to Eugène's lakou; the lwa masoleum of
sculptures gathered outside the gate--it was all so perfectly evocative and
representative of the themes that I had been writing about in Riding with
Death.
When I asked John if I could use the photograph as the cover for Riding
with Death, he immediately and graciously agreed to do so even though he
was also finishing a book entitled Undead Uprising (MIT,
2017). I am so grateful to John not only for his generosity of spirit, but
also for his intellectual engagement with my own ideas about the artists and
the art work at the Grand Rue. It was a creative synergy that fueled both
of our thoughts and writing processes. I am grateful for those gifts and
for his willingness to share the photograph gratis.
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