Of Life as a Menace and a Shield: The Memento Mori and Pandemic Portraits Series

Against Ken Gonzales-Day's framework of the “Nevermade,” a concept he coined to critique historical invisibility, this essay discusses the artist's use of photographic portraiture as a platform to overcome that visual absence and to foster human connection. The series Memento Mori (2001-2006) and Pandemic Portraits (2020-Present) stand as a testament to this approach, asserting the presence of subjects who are queer, Latine, of a part of Gonzales-Day's creative community.

Keywords: Chicano/x artists ; conceptual portraits ; Covid portraits ; Historical invisibility ; Latine photography ; Latine portraits ; Latine queer art ; Latine queer portraits ; Lynching of Latinx ; Queer photography ; Racial profiling