Alinka Echeverria's pilgrimage: The Road to Tepeyac

Each year, six million Mexican Catholic pilgrims journey to the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City to pay homage to the Virgin of Guadalupe. In The Road to Tepeyac, Mexican artist Alinka Echeverria photographs 300 pilgrims bearing treasures of the Virgin to be blessed.

A few years ago, Echeverria travelled to begin documenting the event. In an interview with Time, she reflected on this experience: "It is incredible that about six million people walk for up to ten days to reach the Basilica to pay homage to the Virgin on the anniversary of her apparitions and then sleep in the big square in front of the Basilica to sing 'happy birthday' to her at 5am. The event is an incredible mixture of serenity and chaos."

Born in 1981 in Mexico, Alinka Echeverria is a visual artist who is currently based in Paris. Recently, she was named 2011 winner of the HSBC Prize for Photography, an annual prize given by the HSBC Cultural Foundation of France. The Road to Tepeyac is currently on view throughout Europe. Additional informations can be viewed on the artist website.

"I am also interested in the pilgrimage as a socio-political and cultural phenomenon and in the psychological and emotional relationship that each individual has with the Virgin."
~~ Alinka Echeverria

The Road to Tepeyac, 2009

© Alinka Echeverria

Images, courtesy Alinka Echeverria

The Road to Tepeyac is on view at the Armory Show in New York
March 8 - March 11, 2012