The ancient Maya occupied a territory that included Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, all of the [present day] Guatemala and Belize and the western parts of Honduras and San Salvador. The modern Maya are still found in the region but often as the underdog living in poor condition but still with some ancient tradition alive.
In ancient times Maya kings were absolute rulers and considered to be manifestations of the gods. Artists adopted standardized methods of portraying the Royal families and cords in order to make their status apparent. Kings were represented in profile to show their [artificial-] flatted foreheads. The costumes included attributes of their earthly wealth and attributes associated with specific deities.
The collage shows in the background the portrait of a Maya king in the typical profile fashion with attributes of the maize [corn] god as symbol of the rulers’ divine nature.
The present day Maya in front is calling the spirits at a tourist presentation. The rituals of Maya today are mostly secret. Outsiders are very seldom invited and photographs mostly forbidden outside the representation for tourists. Many of the conservative Maya believe that a photographer could enslave their soul by taking their picture.
The collage was assembled from a digital photo of a dancer/musician at Xcaret, Mexico and the picture of a jade carving found in Guatemala, photographed in 2000 on film and scanned. The bluish background was digitally invented. The image was created in Photo Explosion and Digital Image Suite using filters, transparency, color enhancement and layers.