[close] In 1956, on an extended trip through Mexico, famed photographer Eliot Porter and his photographer friend Ellen Auerbach visited several hundred churches and chapels. Hundreds of years old, the churches were often far from main roads and only very rarely photographed. In paperback for the first time, Mexican Churches is a glowing record of the exuberance and splendor of these sanctuaries, many of which no longer exist today or have been considerably altered. The devotion and spirituality of the Mexican people is abundantly apparent in the carved statues of saints, the beautifully decorated altars, and the votives, milagros, and other devotional objects arranged on altars and in niches. With an essay by folk art curator Donna Pierce tracing the architectural history of the churches, Mexican Churches is an intriguing glimpse of the settings in which people of Mexico have worshipped for centuries. [close]