Africa collage

When I heard the I Heart faces challenge this week was going to be a collage image, I thought of this poster I created for an exhibit about three years ago.  

In fall of 2006, six members of Crossroads Presbyterian Church from Mequon, Wisconsin, USA, traveled to Swaziland, Africa to meet children they sponsor through World Vision and Crossroad's church.  Crossroad church members individually sponsor over 200 children in Swaziland, an area that has one of the highest rates of children orphaned by AIDS in the world.   

I had the privilege of curating an exhibit from the over 6000 photographs taken by the travelers.  It was a huge undertaking, and I loved it.  I felt like I could have been a National Geographic editor sorting through all the photos, selecting and editing and cropping them with a photographer's eye.   

Because I find faces so fascinating, I created this poster for the exhibit.  I spent hours arranging the individual faces for what I hoped would be the best impact, composition, and balance.  I tried to make the faces face in toward the center, or have eyes of some people interact with other people.  I look now and can see some areas I would change...  Oh well.  That is the process of learning.  Color correcting was a challenge, but in the end I was really happy with my collage accomplishment.  I hope you enjoy it. 

The poster was 24x36 inches, but it seems to display fairly well in this web resolution.  Click on the image to see it larger, then click on the image again to zoom in. 
 
The exhibit's images and stories are available via the web so that others may learn more about Swaziland and the opportunities to help and/or sponsor children in Swaziland and other areas where great need exists.  More information and images from this exhibit can be viewed at www.selepimaging.com at The Swaziland Africa Exhibit 

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

Family Portrait

Fun Outtakes

Bundled Up

I am participating in these memes:

I Heart Faces (I was entry no. 20 out of 522).
Mosaic Monday.  (I was entry no. 118 out of 126).