The deities of the Maya had many roles and aspects. Justin focused
on
God A-Prime to show us a deity who transforms into different states
with
different names. He dealt with images of this deity in forms
that may
not be familiar, and he explored the alternate beings that make up
the
many aspects of this supernatural.
Justin Kerr has been a photographer and lecturer on Pre-Columbian subjects
since his first visit to Mexico in 1960. In 1972, he was commissioned
to
photograph the objects for Dr. Michael Coe's monumental work, The Maya
Scribe and His World. Justin designed and built a rollout camera
to record
Maya vases, and since that time he has made the photography and study
of
Maya vases a priority. Since 1989 he has published six volumes
of photos in
his Maya Vase Book series, and he makes his photographs and database
available over the web through The Maya Vase Database and The Pre-Columbian
Portfolio at www.mayavase.com and www.famsi.org.
Justin has lectured extensively on Maya vases and other Pre-Columbian
subjects at universities and museums in Europe and all over the U.S.
He is
a member of the board of directors of The Maya Workshop, Austin TX,
and of
the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Crystal
River,
FL. He has published extensively, and his photos have appeared
in exhibits
around the U.S., as well as in scholarly books and articles and in
such
magazines as Archaeology, The Smithsonian, Natural History, and many
others.
An article about Justin and his work, “A Peripheral Eye on The
Maya,”
appeared in the December 2001 issue of Americas.