Las Catrinas
by angeliska on November 3, 2011
Alas, this year’s flurry of activity and happenings left me entirely wrung out, and in a state of disrepair,
having been bogged down with whatever malaise has got everyone around me likewise gripped in its
throes. Thus, I find myself abed and click-clacking, rather than painting my face skullwise and taking a
krewe of deathly maidens and men out into this windy night to make the Día de los Muertos procession
I have long dreamed of. My cohorts in New Orleans have by now wended their way through the Vieux Carré,
and are now strewn along the riverside, keening low and long for our lost loves – for Flee, for Ray, for
them all. My death-work is undone, just begun. Much altar-building, preparing, writing and processing
remains for tomorrow, and into this dark season we’ve tiptoed into. For now, let these portraits of La
Catrina in her various incarnations serve as inspiration for All Souls’ Nights to come. Some of these
ladies are more sugary than others, some more bleak. All are sacred – death’s daughters, calaveras lindas.
Beautiful Catrina portrait by Mary Kuzmenkova
La Catrina by Sylvia Ji
Ruby Joule photographed by Jeremiah Newton for the recent Beautiful Monsters show from Coco Coquette.
by Gustave Adolphe Mossa
From “Giving up the ghost” in issue #3 of Sokozine. The photographer is Emir Eralp.
Amelia Foxtrot, also by Jeremiah.
My friend Erin Free-man in her exquisite Catrina ensemble, eating cotton candy at this year’s Ghoul Ball.
She did such a fantastic job on both her and her beau’s maquillage! Love the autumnal hues.
This, and the next two photographs are all by John Rees.
by Fumie Sasabuchi
I love this makeup my friend Liz did a few years back.
Brilliant!
Death – Alexander McQueen
From Metropolis
Further reading from November 2nds of yore:
✂ Day of the Dead in New Orleans
✂ Cempasúchil por los Muertos
✂ Día de los Muertos – R.I.P. Studs Terkel
✂ Santissima Muerte!
5 comments
Those pictures are amazing! Inspiring. I rarely comment. But now I must say, your posts often have me searching for more all over the net. Thanks!
by Emma on November 3, 2011 at 3:43 am. #
Fantastic work. The images provoke such an interesting mixture of reactions.
by Robert Schenkkan on November 3, 2011 at 1:20 pm. #
A comely collection of las calaveras catrinas! I am particularly intrigued by the cool elegance of Fumie Sasabuchi’s lady skeletons. The Soko zine photo is from “Giving up the ghost” in issue #3, photographer is Emir Eralp. http://www.sokozine.com/soko3.html & http://www.emireralp.com/
by mlle ghoul on November 3, 2011 at 7:58 pm. #
Oh Miss Ghoul! I can always count on you to sleuth out an elusive snippet! Tin Eye was down last night, and I wanted to get this up… Thank you, darling!
by Angeliska on November 3, 2011 at 8:22 pm. #
You know…Tin Eye was great when it was the only game in town, but I find that Google reverse image search works really well too, maybe even better! I was so excited when I heard they were including that functionality, have you used it yet? Give it a try!
http://www.google.com/insidesearch/searchbyimage.html
As with Tin Eye though, it will provide you with the data, but you have to be willing to sort through all the crap to get to the infos you need. Still – way better than no options at all and mysteries that are impossible to solve!
by mlle ghoul on November 4, 2011 at 4:34 am. #