2020-2026
This ongoing documentation of my mother’s homeland explores the customs, rituals, and traditions that continue to shape contemporary Mexico. From funerals and sacred cenotes to the rebirth ceremony of the temazcal, the work follows the exploration of altered states reached through indigenous mushroom knowledge in San José del Pacífico, the unique syncretic faith practiced in the church of San Juan Chamula in Chiapas, the sacred traditions surrounding peyote in the deserts of San Luis Potosí, and the explosive spectacle of the toritos (firework bulls) of Tultepec.
Los Toritos de Tultepec
Tultepec, Edomex, 2026
16mm film
Hailed as “the most dangerous festival in the world”
Šiauliai, northern Lithuania, 2026
Medium format and 16mm film
One of Europe’s most important syncretic landmarks. Lithuania, the last pagan country in the continent, which held onto its indigenous Baltic religion until official Christianization in 1387 has a history of nature worship, with many syncretic and pagan sites scattered accross the country.
El Paro Nacional - The Colombian National Strike
Bogota, Colombia, 2021
Throughout the 2021 National Strike, Colombia witnessed mass demonstrations across the country. The protests made visible the historical claims of marginalized populations in the country. Inequality, racism, violence and the consequences of the internal armed conflict were key structural causes of the social explosion.- Amnesty
IG: @isabel.o.toole
Isabel is a British-Mexican photographer and experimental filmmaker working with analogue photography and celluloid film. Her practice explores folklore, religion and syncretism, with a focus on ancestral rituals, beliefs, and customs across cultures and generations.
Rooted in her experience of migration and cultural hybridity, her work examines how colonial histories continue to shape identity, memory, and systems of belief. The political landscape is a central focus of her work, informing an ongoing investigation into displacement, inheritance, and the enduring effects of colonisation on both people and the natural world.
Through self-published zines, experimental shorts and photos, her work considers landscape as an archive of violence and resilience, exploring how land bears the marks of extraction, erasure, and survival alongside the persistence of cultural and spiritual traditions. She is interested in investigating the ways cultural and spiritual narratives are preserved, transformed, and reimagined.
Baltic Analog Lab
Riga, Latvia, 2025
Publications
After Hours
Self Published Zine, 2016
Ein Hundeleben
Self Published Zine, 2018
So Summer is gone, Leaving no Epitaph
Self Published Zine, 2021
Golden Hour/ Blue Hour
Kominek Galley, Berlin
Upcoming