For years the dominant Hispanic population of Northern New Mexico has erected powerful and poignant descansos or roadside memorials to remember family and friends killed in automobile accidents. Lanius’s current book MORTAL HIGHWAY (Daylight, 2022) is a sympathetic and intimate depiction in color photographs and text of the tradition of immortalizing the deceased by creating simple and increasingly elaborate works of art along the highway. The photographs focus on the personal details of the descansos, and their presence in the dramatic high desert landscape of the Southwest. They capture the strong and singular spirit of each memorial, and the photographic details highlight how families and friends left behind are inseparable from the descanso they assemble to preserve their personal memories.  

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The Mortal Highway photo book is now available nationally at independent bookstores and Amazon and locally at:

Garcia Street Books, Santa Fe, New Mexico ph: 505-986-0151

Collected Works, Santa Fe, New Mexico ph: 505-988-4226

photo-eye Bookstore, Santa Fe, New Mexico ph: 505-988-5152

Politics & Prose Washington, DC ph: 202-364-1919