Sandrine Hermand-Grisel

Producing a round photograph can be a little troubling for some viewers. People are not used to that shape. Please let us explain how that shape happened.

There are photographers who focus closely on the person or people they are shooting, such as Richard Avedon, a great photographer. Since he used a large format camera, and he made large prints, every detail is quite clear. He used a plain white background. Freckled faces, a spot on a shirt from a recent meal, wrinkles, etc. contribute to the fascination viewers can experience.

However, Meg is trying for something different.

Meg shoots an 8" x 10" format field camera. Instead of using a lens for an 8" x 10" camera, she uses a 4" x 5" lens. Since the small lens doesn't cover the entire sheet of film, and the lens is round, the resulting images are round and very wide angle.

The reason for this choice is she wanted to try to understand the culture.  She believes that people are at least partially influenced by their environment. Small things such as a roll of toilet paper sitting on a television in an otherwise perfectly neat living room says the bathroom is not under the same roof. Children crowd around a shoot watching the action, but they become part of the action. Mothers supervise the shoot which also makes them part of the action since they are at the edge of the photos.

Meg chose to shoot in the poorer neighborhoods of Mexicali, Mexico, the capital city of the state of Baja California. With over a million residents, the possibilities were enormous. Residents hardships were visible. Meg lived a few miles north of the Mexicali border in the lower desert of California, USA. The summers there last roughly seven months, and daytime temperatures during several of those months are almost always over 115 degrees F. Nights get down to 90-plus degrees F. In addition, major earthquake faults run through the area, and roughly every ten years or so, a large earthquake hits causing some buildings to crack or even crumble.

Meg would drive to a neighborhood in Mexicali, stop near some action going on, take her fully-open camera (bellows pulled out), and ask if it would be OK if she shot a picture. People never turned her down. Meg's Spanish was very limited, and this made it easy to let people choose who and/or what would be in the picture. Babies were a common choice. Dads hugging their sons. Friends smiling. A much-loved dog was a priority of one young boy.

The photos edges are just as important as the central subject. This is where mothers would stand, arms crossed (sometimes sternly), supervising. Children not chosen by their parents to be in the photo are standing nearby watching. Major cracks in the stucco of some homes, or wood shoring up a patio or home, beds just inside the front door, are all interesting and contribute to the overall photo. The excessive heat in the summer was the hardest time of year for Mexicali residents. Some, not all, had swamp or evaporative coolers which helped a little, especially if it wasn't humid.

The details make the photos rich with information and meaning. And they require a good long look to experience the full impact of them. Hopefully viewers will do that.