This photographic story by artist Kim Lang brings to life the iconography and mythology around Marie Laveau, the ‘Voodoo Queen of New Orleans’. A prominent 19th century leader, a demon or an emblematic legend, the story of this black priestess follows the rupture of slavery and is infused with both West African spiritualism and European Catholicism. She continues to inspire art and literature to this day with Lang’s beautiful portrait keeping the evocative mystery that surrounds Marie Laveau alive.

Lang writes:

A Goddess to most, a symbol to many, a witch to few, Marie Laveau took many twists, many turns. With birth stories as vivid as could be, she describes perfectly the relation between the so-called races and the distrust and control towards one another. There wasn’t one Marie, there was many, or given her mythological standpoint, may have been none.

What’s left is an image larger than life. An image that transcends colour or history. A story that reflects perfectly on the human condition. If you hear the name - what comes to mind? An answer so shaped by pop culture, its manipulation is inevitable. But an image so torn in history, it may reflect more on your own views than on the truth.

Yet an image may be more truthful than the truth itself. Through time, Marie has had many labels: so light skinned she could pass as any, so dark skinned becoming the symbol of the first powerful black woman in a place of cotton and crops, chains and pain.

How do you see Marie, what comes to mind? Is it the witch, feared by those holding onto the structures defining their own being? Or is it the goddess, a female force taking a decision and leading the many to freedom.

Centuries after her alleged passing, Marie still carries her powers into present day.?The Voodoo Queen of New Orleans: many throw a claim of which most say it with resent and fear. But fear of what?

Voodoo: one of the oldest beliefs, a symbol of resistance, a marriage between old and new. The Voodoo Queen: a claim so broad and yet so narrow. A fear defined by the unknown, but a symbol of resistance, perseverance and identity. A riddle projected to you, demanding to find the answers within. Marie, if any or many, is a question of the self. An example of knowledge, a reflection of resource. Marie can be many, she can be few. Most of all she can be nothing without you.

And now tell me, what comes to mind when you hear the name? Be honest with yourself; be honest with your truth. When I speak of Marie, you think of who? And now question what the response says about you?

Photography and text Kim Lang
Styling Bongeka Dube
Make-up Polly Mann
Hair Zateesha Barbour
Models Fadzai at Named, Ramario chevoy at Vauhaus

Published on 10/10/2019