A New Mexican Burial

These New Mexican cemeteries are embedded in aesthetic signifiers and materials, holding invisible layers of burial reports, family trees, and personal narratives. It is a history of colonialism, harsh conditions, and common disease. It is a testament to ingenuity, cultural exchange, tradition, and religious custom—and ultimately, a constantly evolving reflection of the living.

Dirt mounds, wood, flowers, dried-out cholla, stone—the most natural elements delicately reconfigured to represent our most natural event: death. But beyond death, these cemeteries are social microcosms of the histories that have run through them. While many American East Coast cemeteries have in-depth genealogical records, many rural New Mexican cemeteries stand as one of the only markers of a relatively recent past.

This survey of cemeteries located throughout the state of New Mexico, from abandoned to utilized, is documented in photography and film, occasionally paired with text derived from personal reflections on cultural identity and observations made from research and documenting the unique cemeteries of my community and beyond. A New Mexican Burial is an extensive project spanning three years from 2020 through 2023.

Twenty-three selections from the series were exhibited at No Name Cinema in Santa Fe, New Mexico from October 2022 through January 2023, which included a super 8mm film and a limited edition printed booklet. Read about the project in an interview in Southwest Contemporary by clicking here, Before and Afterlives.