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A man basks in sacred waterfalls during a Vodou pilgrimage.

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Vodou faithful believe several spirits known as Lwa inhabit these falls, including Ezili Danto, a protector spirit of motherhood, Damballah, a male serpent spirit of the sky associated with wisdom, and his wife Ayida Wedo, a rainbow serpent spirit of fertility.

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A woman balances a rock on her head while possessed by a Vodou spirit. The faithful believe many Lwa inhabit elements of nature such as bodies of water, rocks and earth, and trees.

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Consulting a deck of cards, a young man engages in divination during spirit possession.

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A woman in trance collapses into a stream.

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According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared at these falls in 1847. Vodou is highly syncretic and incorporates many elements of Catholicism.

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A man holds a bottle of rum as an offering to the Lwa.

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A woman summons and pleads with spirits through ritual singing and dancing.

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A woman performs a ceremonial act of cleansing during a pilgrimage to sacred waterfalls.

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A woman hoists flags during a cave ceremony in the Haitian countryside. Taino Indians, who inhabited the island of Hispaniola before being eradicated by Spanish and French colonists, once used this cave for religious rituals.

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Pilgrims plead with the spirits during a Vodou ceremony inside a cave.

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Highly syncretic, Vodou incorporates many elements of Catholicism.

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Vodouisants gather for a ceremony in a cave. Taino Indians who once inhabited the island of Hispaniola believed caves to be the origin of human existence.

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Sunlight streaming into a cave illuminates a young Haitian girl during a Vodou pilgrimage.

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Women dance and sing in a sacred mud pool during a pilgrimage honoring Ogou, a warrior spirit of justice.

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A pilgrimage celebrating the spirit Ogou coincides with the Catholic Feast of Saint James.

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A boy poses for a portrait during a pilgrimage honoring Ogou.

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A young man displays the head of a sacrificed goat.

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A woman summons the Lwa through ritual singing and dancing.

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Possessed by a spirit, a woman thrashes in a sacred mud pool during a pilgrimage honoring Ogou.

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A woman writhing in trance pauses before a mirror.

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A man rises from a sacred mud pool during a pilgrimage celebrating Ogou, a warrior spirit of justice.

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Women perform ritual cleansing during a Vodou pilgrimage to the ocean.

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A girl is possessed by a spirit. Lasiren, a mermaid and seductress spirit, is one of the primary Lwa associated with the sea.

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A young man places a gourd filled with cleansing herbs on his head during a pilgrimage to the ocean. Historians believe Columbus washed ashore somewhere nearby in 1492 and established a temporary settlement from the Santa Maria's remains. Spanish and then French colonists would soon follow, importing hundreds of thousands of African slaves for forced labor.

Abducted and forced into barbaric slavery by the hundreds of thousands, the West African peoples exploited for labor on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola shared the spiritual bonds of their homelands. In the former French colony of Saint-Domingue, once among the richest in the world, slaves melded African beliefs rooted in ancestor worship and animism with Catholicism forced upon them by their oppressors and remnant practices of the island's exterminated indigenous peoples.

Vodou, derived from the word meaning "spirit" in the former Fon kingdom of West Africa, united slaves and inspired a revolution that gave birth to the nation of Haiti, the world's first and only republic founded by slave rebellion. Despite being banned and brutally suppressed in the colonial era, and persecuted and sensationalized by Western culture ever since, Vodou has survived all efforts at eradication and flourishes in Haiti to this day.

The religion recognizes a single supreme deity, or God, and a pantheon of supernatural beings known as Lwa in Haitian Kreyòl. These divine spirits embody forces and elements of nature, such as earth, water, air, and fire, and represent human values and emotions such as love, courage, wisdom, and justice. Important pilgrimages often take place in nature—the domain of many powerful Lwa—including waterfalls and pools, caves, and the ocean. Reflecting the highly syncretic nature of Vodou, pilgrimages coincide with Catholic holidays and feasts, and Lwa are closely associated with Catholic saints.

To Vodouisants, as adherents of Vodou faith are known, these sacred spirits have the power to intercede in the affairs of man, offering hope for divine intervention in matters of love, health, fortune, and all manner of personal hardship. The Lwa also have the ability to enter and take control of the human body. Through spirit possession, followers of Vodou—who are said to "serve the Lwa"—transcend their earthly human existence and enter the realm of the divine. As they say in Haiti: "The Catholic goes to church to talk about God; the Vodouisant dances in the temple to become God."

Through documentary photography, I seek to challenge dark prevailing views of this greatly misunderstood and maligned religion. Vodou is a complex spiritual worldview forged by a people subjected to unimaginable suffering since being abducted from their ancestral homelands. It deserves a more accurate and respectful depiction than that typically offered by misinformed and misguided Western culture. In my eyes, Vodou is the supreme expression of human spirituality—a faith of striking mysticism, intensity, and beauty that hearkens to the primal dawn of man, an inseperable union of earthly human existence, the natural world, and the divine.