A mother and child in Ville Bonheour, Haiti
Haiti’s national religion, Vodou, combines native traditions, African religious practices and elements of Catholicism. Ezili Dantò, the vodou Iwa (or spirit) of motherhood is often aligned with the Virgin Mary. In 1849, it is said that she appeared at Saut d’Eau, the island’s tallest waterfall, depicted in this photograph. Devotees journey to the falls every year to bathe under the sacred water in the hope of evoking the protection of the Iwa. Part of her series Virgin Mary, Diana Markosian captures the essence of divine feminine worship in an intimate portrait of mother and child beneath the purifying water.
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