ABSTRACT
Turn-of-the-century Mexican portrait photography of deceased infants and children is revelatory, not only with regard to the funerary traditions of those who commissioned these posthumous photographs, but also in how we define art and patronage in the modern age. The genre of Mexican photography that is the focus of this essay reflects the belief that in death these children are transformed to angels – messengers of God. As such, we see the local practice of dressing the deceased in costumes as holy figures from the Catholic pantheon. The widespread popularity of photography in 19th- and early-20th-century Mexico made portraiture available to larger sectors of society, including those of non-European heritage, as evidenced by this photographic genre.
