Mexico celebrates Halloween on October 31 and the Day of The Dead on November 2nd. This booth offers sweet treats for both holidays. The proprietor hides from the camera, using a batch of pumpkins as a makeshift mask. Many of these sweets, some in shape of skulls, will appear on family altars as Day of The Dead gifts to the spirits of the departed.
This image is intended to work as a photographic document designed to give us insight into the nature of the holiday. Those insights are revealed bit-by-bit in the small details that make up the image. The half hidden man is reduced to a virtual spirit – he is there but not there at the same time. I deliberately partially blocked his face because spirits populate this holiday, and I wanted him to appear as inhuman as possible. The skulls on the table and those on the banner at the back of the booth, as well as the skeletal decorations on both of its walls, incongruously laugh at the concept of death. In mocking death, and making humor out of it, the Mexican celebrants see death as less of a threat, and more of something that is always present in their lives.