If I had to choose one editorial theme I could only design for the rest of my life I would choose “Day of the Dead” in a heartbeat. Whenever I get to design traditions and customs from my Mexican culture, I am ecstatic.

Mexico is more than just a place for me. It’s my ancestors, it’s the land that raised me, it’s the farm that fed me, it’s the family that built me. Therefore, you can understand that I saw this editorial as more than just a “photoshoot of inspiration.” I saw this as an opportunity to make my people proud and to show others that I am proud to be a Mexican American woman.

Three things I’d love for you to know you about day of the dead:

1. It is NOT a Mexican version of Halloween. It is a time to honor & respect deceased loved ones.
2. Altars, known as “ofrendas”, are not created to worship the deceased family member, they serve as a portal to welcome spirits back to the realm of the living.
3. The colorful skulls you see everywhere for day of the dead represent the phrase, “todos somos calaveras” —> “we are all skeletons.”

The main idea here is that we are all the same underneath.

I took a spin from the traditional día de los muertos colors you usually see, as I wanted this shoot to be deep and moody. I then brought in heavy candlelight to create the spiritual ambiance, built textured fabric backdrops to give dimension and let the floral dry to show that not everything needs to be alive in order to have beauty. I felt that correlated with the theme, as day of the dead is all about embracing what is dead.

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Shoutout to Morgan with In Frames Photography for seeing my vision and capturing it better than I could’ve ever imagined. I love you long time mamas.

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