Mayan Shaman — Chiapas Ceremony Portrait
167.06 €
A Tzotzil Mayan aj’ij (day keeper) at a highland Chiapas ceremony — candles, copal incense, and flower offerings arranged on the earth before him, his traditional huipil cloth and focused expression communicating the ritual context.
Description
The highland Maya communities of Chiapas maintain an unbroken ceremonial calendar — the 260-day Tzolkin calendar continues to be used by aj’ij day keepers for divination and ritual scheduling in communities where the
pre-Columbian religious tradition was never fully replaced by Catholicism. This image was made at a community ceremonial site near San Juan Chamula during a permitted documentation visit facilitated by a Tzotzil-speaking anthropologist, the aj’ij in the early stages of a ceremony of gratitude. The candles are arranged by colour and number according to the specific ceremony’s requirements; the copal incense smoke creates a haze that gives the mountain hillside site an atmospheric depth. Shot on a 35mm prime at f/2.8 with available natural light, the candle flames provide warm fill points against the cool daylight.
