Underwater photographer, Caroline Davis, has been photographing baptisms in Alabama for a project she proposed eight years ago, funded by two individual artist fellowship grants from the Alabama State Council of the Arts. She captures baptisms in Greene, Sumpter and Hale Counties, where in these black belt counties there are more outdoor baptisms than in any other parts of Alabama or the deep South. Davis was influenced by her father and a woman who raised her to combine her interests in photography, scuba diving and the vanishing art of the river baptism. Her surrogate mother, an African American woman, instilled in Davis from birth, the rhythm of southern river baptism lullabies. Her father, a World War II photographer, was the head of the U. S. Air Force Photography Department where he received a Bronze Star for his aerial photographic maps used by U. S. troops for the D-Day invasion. These two formed the catalyst for Davis' eventual specialty, underwater photography and, in particular, of river baptisms.

After completing her Bachelor's of Arts degree at the University of Alabama in 1986, Davis further her studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. There she held the position of assistant to world renowned photographer, Hans Neleman. Upon her return to Alabama, Davis became the preeminent river baptism photographer.

Her photographs are exhibited in museums, galleries, and collections throughout the State of Alabama, including the Huntsville Museum of Art; the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts; Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; Rosa Parks Museum; and The Tennessee Valley Art Museum.

Additionally, her commercial work has appeared in magazines, including: Southern Living, Natural History, Audubon, and Skin Diver Magazine. Davis has photographed on location around the world for clients such as the St. Kitts Department of Tourism; MasterCard, Oceanos Diving Equipment, The Aggressor Fleet World Live-Aboard Diveboats and works out of her studio and gallery in the historic Dr. Pepper Building in the Pepper Place District of Birmingham Alabama.

"Davis' baptism compositions are careful balances of light, figure and landscape. A wide range of effects can be achieved depending upon how she positions herself in relation to the water. When she is completely submerged, She achieves a calm composition that suggests peace, as in "And A Voice Came From Heaven: You Are My Son, Whom I Love; With You I Am Well Pleased." Other compositions are created when her camera is half in and half out of the water. During this process, water will sometimes splash onto her camera lens, creating a sense of water splashing up into the viewer... Davis suggests the immediacy and intimacy of a profound religious moment..." - Irja J. Thurlow, Associate Curator of Paintings and Sculpture, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.

Artist's Statement: The passion of my work is the continuing dialogue between light and water. The primary site for this dialogue, for me, is found in full immersion baptisms which continue to occur in the deep South. I shoot from above and below the surface of the water, inviting the viewer beneath the water's surface for a unique encounter with the baptism candidate at the moment of submersion. Ripples, reflections, light and dark intertwine to heighten the impact of the image and enthrall the viewer. Immersion provides the ultimate act of a believer's faith, as well as a means of giving up personal identity to merge with the universal whole, and in the process to gain entry into God's spiritual realm.

Photo used on cover of PoemMemoirStory (PMS #7, 2007)

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