Larry Chait: Las flores para los muertos

Larry Chait's exhibition titled, “Las flores para los muertos.” (“Flowers for the Dead”), consists of dark and moody photographs that were taken at the Panteón de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, a public cemetery in the town of San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. According to Chait, there’s a section there where foreigners are buried that resembles a typical American cemetery. But Chait found the section where the locals are put to rest to be of greater interest. That area contains several long rows of burial niches (nichos) which relatives decorate with flowers and other personal artifacts as a way of remembering and paying respect to the deceased. Many of the flowers are artificial because they last indefinitely. Chait states that he was inspired to photograph these nichos "because of the contrast between the brightly colored, perfectly preserved flowers and the dark, deteriorating niches, adorned with crudely written text."

Larry Chait is a Chicago-based photographer who has been pursuing his artistic vision since 2002. He studied photography at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and at Columbia College Chicago. His work has been included in the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Block Museum at Northwestern University, and the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis. He has exhibited widely nationally and internationally in more than 90 solo and group exhibitions.

Image: Larry Chait, Las flores para los muertos #14