Mictlán, from the series México Tenochtitlán

Photographer Francisco Mata Rosas has dedicated his career to documenting modern life in his native Mexico City and beyond. With a background in photojournalism, he focuses on subjects ranging from crowded subway cars to the political conflict in Chiapas. In his series México Tenochtitlán, Mata Rosas explores Mexican culture, both ancient and modern. The images feature religious rituals, popular festivals, weekend leisure activities, panoramas of the Mexico City center, and other views of urban street life. He often juxtaposes symbols of present-day Mexico with those representing pre-Hispanic precedents, hence the titular reference to Tenochtitlán, capital of the Aztec Empire upon which Mexico City is founded.

Mictlán depicts the bustling subway station at the Zócalo, the geographic and symbolic heart of the capital, peopled by commuters and street vendors. A skeleton-costumed figure at the center of the composition seems to emerge like a personification of Death from the bowels of the underworld, a reference that is further supported by the work’s title, Mictlán, the name for the Aztec realm of the dead. This image was likely captured during the festivities of Day of the Dead, in which the memory of loved ones is celebrated through such activities as the construction of offering altars and the wearing of calavera (skeleton) masks.