Book of the week: Mexico: Masks, Rituals by Phyllis Galembo

Phyllis Galembo first travelled to Mexico’s Riviera Maya in the late 1970s. She was invited to take part in a local fiesta, sparking off an obsession with documenting ritual dress and celebrations around the world. Over the last ten years, however, she’s turned her lens back to the place where it all began: Mexico, and its extravagantly costumed festivals.

Galembo documents local festivals across different communities, each with its own character and customs. Though one element, notes Sergio Rodríguez-Blanco in his introduction, found in all these Catholic calendar celebrations is the incorporation of indigenous traditions. Take the Festival of Corpus Christi, into which ancient Mesoamerican ancestor worship has been assimilated. Participants wear craggy, ancient-looking masks carved from the trunks of maguey plants, which represent the ancestors who send the rains. Modern iconography peppers costumes too – take the boy with his favourite cartoon characters stitched into his outlandish costume, or the young men who paint their bodies with the American flag during the Semana Santa.

Galembo’s book is a riot of colour – celebrating the individuality, creativity and craftsmanship that goes into these masks and costumes. Organised by festival, each collection of photographs is prefaced with text explaining the customs and figures that appear in each ritual. Bright, theatrical, uncanny at times, but full of life, it’s a fascinating, beautiful study.

Mexico: Masks, Rituals Phyllis Galembo (Radius Books/D.A.P, trade edition $45) is out now. radiusbooks.org