Soon after admission, de Lattre’s mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She was prescribed a chemical cocktail to be taken four times a day, but it seemed to have little effect on her condition. Struck by the ineffectiveness of the treatment, her son decided to do some research of his own, hoping to figure out what else might ease this lifelong illness.
Photo: Mathias de Lattre
A selection of Mexican mushrooms, edible portals to another world. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
During his extended research period, Mathias came across an experiment conducted by American author and ethnomycologist Robert Gordon Wasson. In 1955 he traveled to Oaxaca to meet Mazatec healer Maria Sabina, and the experience formed the basis of a widely-read 1957 article for Life magazine, “Seeking the Magic Mushroom”. Decades later, Mathias would end up speaking with a psychotherapist who had studied in Mexico with descendants of Sabina herself.
On the left, a cave painting. On the right, a mushroom carved out of stone. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
After cutting ties with the psychiatric community, Mathias de Lettre's mother decided to explore hallucinogens. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
Mathias' mother photographed in a French psychiatric hospital. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
Photo: Mathias de Lattre
The entrance to Fone-de-Gaume, a French cave containing around 200 prehistoric paintings. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
The desiccated remains of a Mexican mushroom picked in the mid-1950s. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
Photo: Mathias de Lattre
Ritual in action. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
The photographer's mother stood in a Swiss lake. Photo: Mathias de Lattre
