Portraits of people who tried the hottest pepper in the world (28 photos)
Joseph Ibarra's photography project Los Enchilados is an essay exploring the roots of Mexican food culture, which is characterized by incredible spiciness. In Mexico, you can't live without hot peppers. There are 64 types of chili peppers. Hot peppers and tortillas are staple ingredients in Mexico's culinary arts, much like bread and wine in France.
Eating hot peppers is a way to gain respect in Mexico. Chile is a metaphor for how Mexicans respond to risk. This is an opportunity to show courage. Mexicans not only take this tradition seriously, they enjoy it.
For the photo series Los Enchilados, which is an opportunity to see a piece of the real Mexicans, the photographer asked the models to eat as many habanero peppers as they could. In 1999, the habanero was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the hottest pepper in the world. On people's faces you can see not only a reaction to burning pain, but also pleasure.
