In 2022 I took a trip to Oaxaca in late October to visit the city during its glorious Day of The Dead festival, and to spend some time looking for some of the endemic bird species unique to the area.

My first trip to Oaxaca was back in 1996 and while the city has maintained its charm and beauty, it has also changed a lot. It has become noticeably more touristy, with those double-decker tour buses we’ve become used to in London and New York now plowing the narrow, colonial era streets of Oaxaca. But Oaxaca is not just the main city, it is also a large region of surrounding towns and villages where it is easy to get away from the touristy crowds in the city and to get closer to the day-to-day rural life of the region.

The festival itself pervades the entire area, with colorful alters to the dead in the homes and businesses, and more somber gatherings at the cemetery to sit with and honor the ancestors.

Along the way, as we walked the back roads looking for birds I noticed a unique variety of agave that grew along the roadside. These were large, cactus-like plants (though agave are not cactus as they belong to a different family) with spans of up to six feet.

Agave is king in Oaxaca, the foundation of the local mescal industry, with many varietals contributing to a wide range of mescal styles. Colloquially named “Agave Mal Pais”, the plants I found alongside the road are not used to make mescal, but instead are planted to control erosion. They are also harvested used (because of its high moisture content) in the preparation of the famous local BBQ of Tlacolula.

From this trip I’ve produced a series of four related prints, entitled Mal Pai I through Mal Pais IV, available as limited edition Fine Art Prints rendered in black and white, and printed on Canson Baryta Photographique paper.