The decadent photobook documenting Mexico City’s debauched creatures of the night

When you think of cities renowned for their outrageous nightlife, Berlin is probably the first place that springs to mind. However, a new photobook, Vida, by Mexican photographer Jesús León, reveals how Mexico City might give the German capital a run for its money. Published this month by Edition Patrick Frey, Vida is a photographic exploration into the Mexican metropolis’ vibrant music and underground scene, which the Mexican-born artist has documented for the past twenty years. When he first starting recording the city’s after-hours debauchery, León admits that it was difficult to capture the heady atmosphere for obvious reasons. “People did not want to be photographed when drinking, snorting coke or having sex. Now, after I have become known to many, things have become easier.” But renown and acceptance have come with their own set of problems. “[People] start posing, and the spontaneity gets lost … I like to struggle for a picture. I like to seduce.” Undoubtably, his methods of seduction must work:  his photographs are exhilarating documents of the colourful antics of the city’s characters, from the young and beautiful to hedonistic revellers, to sexual explorers and ageing drag queens.

Across nearly 300 pages, Vida presents an array of vibrant and subversive portraits of Mexico’s nighttime pleasure seekers. Partygoers are depicted in outlandish, brightly-coloured costumes, frequently revealing naked flesh and abundant pubic hair set against graffitied mirrors, padded nightclub walls and even — repulsively — a dead dog against a steaming pile of rubbish. León’s scenes contrast the glamorous with the vulgar, embodying a pronounced sense of “glitter and doom” — a term associated with the extravagance and simultaneous depravity of club culture.

As a self-taught photographer, Leòn captures these debauched scenes in his own unique style, which unlike other photographers, is not preoccupied with the technological side of the medium. “My equipment is eight years old. I’m interested in taking a good photo, even with an iPhone,” says León, who regards Man Ray, Andy Warhol and Weegee to be among his influences. “I like Weegee because of his chaotic and dark scenes of New York in the thirties,” Leòn states. “The atmosphere takes me back to today’s Mexico City. Lots of violence in every respect.”

Vida is imbued with a intoxicating sense of shock and thrill, which contrasts with León’s simultaneous interest in fashion and fantasy. Growing up he loved fashion magazines, but as the artist notes “living in Mexico, the Nota Roja [a style of journalism focusing on violence and crime] was present as well… I try to create a mixture of both”. León also describes Mexico City as “the city of death”, and whilst this statement makes sense when thinking of the famous Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations, for example, Leon asserts that the cultural obsession with the topic runs a lot deeper than just an annual festival. “Here you can find people who adhere to Santa Muerte, a religious cult centring on death. When I was a kid, my aunt’s told me, maybe tonight you will die… And they would talk about prophecies and how the world would end in the year 2000.”

Despite a difficult relationship with said prophesising aunts, León recognises that their devout Christianity has in fact impacted his photography. Considering the deviant behaviour and carnivalesque atmosphere depicted in Vida, this might be a somewhat surprising influence, but León — ever the provocateur — is more focused on the brutal iconography of the Christian religion rather than its moral teachings. “The images of bleeding Jesus, the suffering — this type of drama is something I like to watch.” This darkly religious undertone is evident in one particularly striking photograph of a woman, whose face is entirely obscured by her bleached, peroxide hair. Wearing nothing but a lace-trimmed bra and an oversized leather coat, her exposed genitals are juxtaposed with an enormous heavy-set cross slung around her neck. She is León’s version of a new religious icon. This use of holy iconography along with the more “degenerate” imagery in Vida are not, however, at odds with one other. Instead, the religious references suggest Mexico City’s underground scene as its own form of religion or cult, one which the subjects of León’s photographs are dedicated worshippers. After all, as León says so himself, “I am a creature of the night… I may get tired of drugs, but never of going out at night”.

“Vida” published by Edition Patrick Frey is out now. 

All quotations taken directly from Vida.

Images courtesy of Jesús León and Edition Patrick Frey.