Although by 1920 photography had become fairly democratized through photographic studios and workshops, its reach was still limited, as it required specialized personnel and equipment and supplies that were difficult to obtain. Therefore, photographic recording was sporadic and was used mainly on relevant dates and events, making it even less common to photograph a minor or newborn. Although children were present in De la Calle’s production, there is a genre in which they were predominant: posthumous photographs. Compositional heirs of Baroque death and consolidated in the practice of the French ‘last portrait’ (Le Dernier Portrait), these images became popular in Antioquia in the early twentieth century, largely because of the popular belief that if the deceased minor had been baptized, he would become an angel, and thus become a divine intercessor between God and the family. In De la Calle’s posthumous photographs, the composition that simulates sleep predominates. In it the children rest in a tiny coffin that serves as a bed. Their body is dressed according to the beliefs of their parents, most of them Catholic. The white clothing and coffin allude to the purity and innocence of the person portrayed, and the delicate treatment that De la Calle gave to the shot only increases the solemnity of the scene, even in those photographs where the parents, both distressed and absorbed, accompany the body of their child.
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