Isabel Moreno Cortez's Handmade Photobook 'Ángel Miguel' Weaves Two Family Deaths Into One Object
Isabel Moreno Cortez, who was born in Mexico in 1985, spent five years creating the artist book Ángel Miguel through participation in three programs: SINAPSIS (Mexico, 2019), PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT (Japan, 2022), and INCUBADORA DE FOTOLIBROS (Mexico, 2023). This project explores the themes of child mortality and the language barriers faced by grieving parents, consisting of two volumes: Angel, which recounts her son’s passing on January 23, 2019, and Miguel, detailing her brother's suicide on June 23, 1996. A handmade cord connects the two sections. In 2023-2024, Hydra published 100 copies, including a special edition of 23, followed by an offset edition of 1,000 copies in 2025. The book garnered three international nominations and was showcased at Kyotographie. Isabel is an alumnus of the Universidad de Guadalajara and UNAM.
Key facts
- Isabel Moreno Cortez's artist book Ángel Miguel was developed over five years through Hydra's SINAPSIS (Mexico, 2019), RPS Reminders Photography Stronghold's PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT (Japan, 2022) and Hydra's INCUBADORA DE FOTOLIBROS (Mexico, 2023)
- The book intertwines Angel, about her son's death in the womb on January 23, 2019, and Miguel, about her brother's suicide at thirteen on June 23, 1996
- A handmade cord of three colored threads emulating an umbilical cord joins the two books
- Hydra published the author's edition in 2023-2024: 100 copies printed mostly by hand, with 23 forming the special edition including a cord by Isabel and a bag sewn by her mother
- An offset edition of 1,000 copies was published in 2025 with a co-investment grant from Mexico's Ministry of Culture
- The project was longlisted for the 2024 Photography and Moving Image Book Awards by the Kraszna Krausz Foundation, nominated for LensCulture's 2025 Favorite Photobooks of the Year, and named a 2026 finalist for PhotoEspaña's Best Photography Book of the Year
- Isabel presented the book at Kyotographie and exhibited at Reminders Photography Stronghold Paperoles in Kyoto
- She studied painting at the Universidad de Guadalajara and earned a master's in photography at UNAM
Entities
Artists
- Isabel Moreno Cortez
- Ana Casas Broda
- Beatriz Novaro
- Yumi Goto
- Jan Rosseel
- Erik Kessels
- Theun van der Heijden
- Sandra van der Doelen
- Duncan Wooldridge
- Juan Valbuena
- Vera Yijun Zhou
- Lukas Birk
- Pedro Tzontémoc
- Lourdes Almeida
- Javier Hinojosa
- Nicola Lorusso
- Patricia Lagarde
- Gabriel Figueroa
- Laila Nahar
- Ángel
- Miguel
- Jesús
- Iris
Institutions
- Hydra
- RPS Reminders Photography Stronghold
- INCUBADORA DE FOTOLIBROS
- SINAPSIS: LABORATORIO DE PRODUCCIÓN FOTOGRÁFICA
- PHOTOBOOK AS OBJECT
- Universidad de Guadalajara
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
- Academia de San Carlos
- The Patchwork Healing Blanket
- Kraszna Krausz Foundation
- LensCulture
- PhotoEspaña
- Ministry of Culture of México
- Kyotographie
- Reminders Photography Stronghold Paperoles
- Lenscratch
Locations
- Mexico
- Mexico City
- Guadalajara
- Japan
- Kyoto
- United Kingdom
- United States
- India
- Tanzania