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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty One: Interpreting cultural festivals -- Mexico’s Day of the Dead > Remembering the Dead, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
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02-NOV-2005

Remembering the Dead, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005

At the height of the Day of The Dead celebration, hundreds attend a special service for the dead on the grounds of San Miguel's cemetery. This was the most emotional moment I witnessed on The Day of The Dead. While the holiday is generally considered a joyous family celebration, memories of loss are bound to emerge in spite of the festivities. Perhaps that is why this service is held – to provide an emotional outlet for those whose grief will not go away. I was in a photojournalistic mindset when I made his image. I immediately saw the emotional potential of a service for the dead, and positioned myself in a crowd standing well behind the priest. Using a focal length of about 200mm, I shot image after image of these four people, representing full span of life – youth to age and in-between. In this image, I was able to find the fullest range of emotional response.

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Phil Douglis24-Nov-2005 04:57
You see what I saw in this moment, Diana. This image is timeless. Pick your century here. Grief is grief, no matter when. I think it is the position of the hands and arms, ending in a woman wearing a long scarf, that implies the Renaissance here.
Guest 23-Nov-2005 23:52
It's like a Renaissance portrait of grief. Beautifully rendered.
Phil Douglis19-Nov-2005 04:15
Thank you, Christine, for bringing these observations to bear on this image. You guessed right. Everyone here has experienced loss. That is why they have assembled for this service of remembrance. You feel each person's pain in a special way. You may not actually know what is going in their heads at this moment, but that is the purpose of my picture. I want to you to become each of these people, and react to what they are doing in your own way. They are expressing human emotions, very much as you would. I want you to identify with them, and thereby perhaps come to understand what they may be feeling. That is what an expressive image such as this is designed to do.
Guest 19-Nov-2005 03:50
Phil - We do not know for sure what makes people look somewhat happy or sad here; the sadness is possibly related to the loss of a close person. I think the context suggests that interpretation. What is noticeable is the fact that they all seem to live their emotions in a vacuum and not sharing it with the persons (relatives, I suppose) beside them. The lady beside the person who is crying seems to find solace in religion (she is holding a religious illustration). The child does not seem affected and the oldest lady looks like she has had so much pain and suffering in her life that she has accepted death as a natural part of life.
Did you notice how many times I used the word "seem" above? I do not know what happened in their head at that time, but I suppose that the expression of emotions is somewhat universal. Nice human picture, Phil.
Christine
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