--- description: In a city with close to 22 million people, how do you handle your dead? That question drove Sebastien van Malleghen to Mexico City. title: Confronting Death in Mexico City image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfa9e41c881541561/698892428e06012b17465c5c/sebastien-van-malleghem-mexico-023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Confronting Death in Mexico City by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2016 10:00 AM CUT  Family members mourn a 42-year-old mother who passed away due to a pulmonary disease. San Lorenzo Tezonco cemetery, Iztapalapa, Mexico City. March 17, 2016. Family members mourn a 42-year-old mother who passed away due to a pulmonary disease. San Lorenzo Tezonco cemetery, Iztapalapa, Mexico City. March 17, 2016.Sébastien Van Malleghem by [Olivier Laurent](/author/olivier-laurent/) ## Olivier Laurent Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 12, 2016 10:00 AM CUT In a city with close to 22 million people, where concrete has taken over, how do you handle your dead? It’s that question that drove photographer Sebastien van Malleghen to Mexico City earlier this year. “Around 450 people die every single day in Mexico City,” says the Belgian photographer best known for his in-depth forays into the [penitentiary](http://time.com/3597834/a-cold-place-with-no-curves-life-inside-belgian-prisons/ "undefined") and [law enforcement](http://time.com/4120858/inside-the-belgian-town-at-the-center-of-the-paris-attacks-investigation/ "undefined") worlds. “The cemeteries are just enormous, and I wanted to show what happens between the moment we die and the moment our bodies are buried in a megalopolis like Mexico City.” The result is a series of raw and unflinching images that show not just death but also life—the life of the people who work in the shadow, preparing bodies for their final repose. “Their job is to clean the corpses, fix the muscles, remove the fat, erase all of these stigmas and then to apply make-up and dress them up,” says van Malleghen. “It’s very mechanic. \[After a while\] the corpses become simple objects to them.” Some of his images are hard to look at, and that’s the point, says the photographer, who admits he wouldn’t have been able to get the same level of access back in his native Belgium. He believes that the tendency to become numb to fictional death on TV and in movies while turning away from real death—because “when you show what happens in real life, people think it’s too harsh, too raw”—is worth combating, even if it’s uncomfortable. And Mexico is an appropriate place to do so. There, in his experience, death isn’t seen as the end. “It’s part of life, and the families’ strength in the face of death is incredible,” he says. “They believe that in order to surmount your pain, you have to feel it.” [**_Sebastien Van Malleghem_**](http://www.sebastienvanmalleghem.eu/ "undefined") _is a freelance photographer based in Belgium._ **_Olivier Laurent_** _is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on_ [_Twitter_](http://twitter.com/olivierclaurent "undefined") _and_ [_Instagram_](http://instagram.com/olivierclaurent "undefined")[_@olivierclaurent_](http://timethemoment.wordpress.com/mentions/olivierclaurent/ "undefined")  The entrance of the Embalsamadoras Funeral Office in the Colonia Doctores neighborhood in Mexico City. It usually handles between three and 15 corpses a night. March 9, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem   Adan works on a body inside the embalmer's office in Colonia Doctores, Mexico City. March 7, 2016 Sébastien Van Malleghem  Embalmer's tools used to prepare the bodies. March 7, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A body is seen on the working table of the embalming office of the Grossman company. March 12, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A cross on a gallon of bleach. Bleach is used to clean the bodies. March 7, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  The clothes of a deceased person are ready to be used. March 7, 2016. sebastien Van Malleghem—VAN MALLEGHEM sebastien  Arthuro, an employee of the Embalsamadores Funeral Office dresses up a body before putting it in a coffin. March 9, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A body is prepared and placed in a coffin. March 21, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A body is cremated. March 15, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A worker of the Pantheon San Nicolas de Tolentino puts the ashes of a deceased person in a grinder before presenting them to the family. March 15, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A young girl works as a secretary for the funeral company Grossman. While she watches the security cameras of the company, she also listens to the video clip of the American singer Fergie, who sings "Big Girls Don't Cry." March 13, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  View from the Colonia Alamos neighborhood. March 6, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A funeral worker rests as he consults his Facebook account on his phone. March 12, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  An itinerant seller of coffins talks to an ambulance driver, gathering information about funerals stores in need of coffins. March 13, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  The owner of a funeral flower store goes to the city's flower market twice a week with her daughter to buy Chrysantemum. March 08, 2016 Sébastien Van Malleghem  Local families from the Itzapalapa neighborhood traditionally carry the coffin of the deceased through the streets of the village as a final goodbye. Itzapalapa, Mexico City. March 16, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  Wild grass takes over a grave at the San Lorenzo Tezonco cemetery in Mexico City. March 15, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A cemetery worker digs in a familial grave to exhume a corpse, under the watch of family members. After 21 years, coffins are considered obsolete. The family can decide to burn the remains and place them in a funeral urn, and keep the grave for another family member. San Nicolas Tolentino cemetery, Mexico City. March 15, 2016. sebastien Van Malleghem—VAN MALLEGHEM sebastien  Family members mourn a 42-year-old mother who passed away due to a pulmonary disease. San Lorenzo Tezonco cemetery, Iztapalapa, Mexico City. March 17, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A funeral bus is seen at the San Nicolas Tolentino cemetery. For practical purposes, families and friends usually rent a bus to attend a funeral. March 17, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A family on a bus at the San Lorenzo Tezonco cemetery. March 17, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A family gathers on the anniversary of the death of a woman at the San Nicolas Tolentino cemetery. March 20, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  Family members mourn a 42-year-old mother who passed away due to a pulmonary disease. San Lorenzo Tezonco cemetery, Iztapalapa, Mexico City. March 17, 2016. Sébastien Van Malleghem  A view of the San Nicolas Tolentino cemetery. March 17, 2016. 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