Photographer's Comments on Divine Humility: Jesus Icons in Contemporary Mexico I never thought I would ever be traveling around all regions of Mexico photographing Jesus icons in cemeteries. Not after completing a comprehensive eleven year project of photographing an exuberant and temporal pre-NAFTA consumer environment titled Mecados De Mexicanos - A Landscape in Transition. Actually my photographic interest in another omnipresent influence on Mexicans - Jesus - began in a small church.

Church Hallway Crucifix Ocotlan, Oaxaca, 1999

Taking a short rest from a noisy market street, I went into the quiet church and sat down in a back pew. A man came in and soon began chatting to the tortured Jesus figure as one would to an understanding mother or father or perhaps to a very intimate friend. He touched this destitute lifelike Christ to complete his bonding. To him, it would appear, the figure was much more than cold porcelain symbolism, it was a bloodstained supernatural protector and confidant. This moment helped me to see the animated presence of these icons. Usually photographing from touching distance, and using light that is similar to contemporary church lighting when possible, I have tried to express this animated presence.

The historical difference of Mexican Catholicism and Anglo-Saxon Protestantism is significant. Mexican writer Octavio Paz points out that "Indian gods were connected, as it were, to Christianity, while in the United States they vanished. The spiritual richness of Mexican Catholicism is astonishing. With the same freedom and confidence in the supernatural with which they converted ancient gods into saints and Christian demons, Mexicans have adopted and transformed western artistic forms."

What I have discovered in Mexican cemeteries is not only this spiritual richness but also a concurrent embracing of contemporary consumer values in very personal ways. They use both traditional and contemporary values, combine pagan and Christian themes and integrate consumer and private imagery. The cemetery may be the best place to witness the richness of spiritual, cultural, consumer and individual family values in Mexico.

During the past five years, I have discovered that unlike the rocks of ages - granite and marble - so prevalent in other cultures, Mexican sites mark time since the deceased has passed. The weathering and crumbling of Jesus figures are not only visually marking time and symbolically distancing one from the deceased, I believe they also take on deeper spiritual meaning for the family. Recently, I have concentrated on the organic qualities that distinguish icons within their environment.

The retrospection and futurity that will take place during the millennium should give a new perspective and value to the series. It has prompted me to hasten the completion of the Jesus series. With the assistance of a faculty research grant and sabbatical, photographs from almost all regions of Mexico have been completed.

Robert Lewis, 1999