Paper short abstract:

In using photography to capture devotees' interactions with saintly images in Oaxaca, Mexico, this paper explores the value of visual methods in unveiling the fluidity of gender in relation to intimacy, understood as care and closeness -trait often attributed to women- in the context of devotion.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores intimacy, a fleeting index of emotional closeness and care, as a place to discern gender and to question essentialised views of the same. Based on visual ethnography on the devotion to a Mexican female saint, la Santa Muerte (Saint Death, a controversial figure traditionally attached to the masculine world of narco-traffickers), it considers the intimate as modalities of devotion enacted by the devotees to care for their saintly images through gestures of love and proximity. This care is often expressed through touching the effigies of the saint, dressing them, and pampering them through multiple little acts akin to motherly love. Observing these modes of intimacy through photography reveals that devotees perform these same caring actions regardless of gender. Proposing that the value of photography as an ethnographic tool to document phenomena encountered in the field lies in its capacity to produce insights at different levels of analysis, this paper posits visual methodology as a tool to reckon with the very category of gender. In doing so, it argues that intimate devotion can be visually detected to generate a multifaceted understanding of the constructions of femininity and masculinity in Oaxaca understood as a lived reality. Ultimately, looking at devotional intimacy through photographs opens a window onto the complex linkages between the anthropologist and her informants while it illuminates the value of visual material in uncovering the fluidity of gendered practices.