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Will Sanders: I love Halloween, so I was out in Mexico City for Day of the Dead back in 2009 and it was just full of people wearing Michael Jackson outfits. It was really weird. I haven't been back since, so I'm not sure if it's still going on, but I'm guessing it's because that was that year that Jackson died.

Well, I mean, there were loads of kids dressed up in American-style halloween costumes, like monsters and vampires and stuff, but we kept noticing more and more little Michael Jackson kids popping up all over the place. And you know all the carved ornaments and chocolate you get at Halloween? They were doing all that stuff with Michael Jackson—Halloween chocolate carvings of him. It was pretty cool.

I don't really know. I love Halloween imagery and autumn's always been my favorite time of year—the colors are great—so it just kind of appeals to me. It's a shame it only happens once a year.
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Oh, it is. In Mexico, there's skulls everywhere, everyone's dressed up, and they even have the bread of death, which is this bread with a load of stuff baked into it that they only have for those few days. However, it seemed a bit like the Day of the Dead side of things were fading and a more Americanized Halloween was coming in, which is a bit sad.

It was weird, because the year I went was when everyone was freaking out about bird flu, so the main square, where everyone usually goes, was completely empty. I've been a few times before and it's usually rammed with loads of stalls and a tons of those orange flowers they make there for Day of the Dead, so it was strange to have no one there. It usually has a lovely atmosphere, but it was really eerie that year.

I like the tradition of it there. It's more of a celebration of the dead—really positive—and the whole visual history of it is amazing. If you drive past any cemetery in Mexico City around that time, all the graves have little, framed pictures and stuff around them, which is a lovely thing to do, don't you think?

I haven't been back since that last time—I wanted to concentrate on something else—but putting the book together made me sort of miss it. Not just for the pictures, though; more because being there at that time of year is just really lovely. It's a special place.
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