Words | Alaina Latham
R
emember the old saying; “you are what you eat” well photographer Mark Menjivar captured just that. Raiding people’s refrigerators and snapping the contents Menjivar desired to illustrate if there is any truth to the old adage. Hailing from San Antonio, TX, Menjivar doesn’t even walk around with camera. “When I was growing up, I was never in the arts at all. I actually studied social work and I would pick up a camera every now and then.” Stepping away from the norms and finding his own path with his work, Menjivar is here to give a message with his work and make sure that it is seen and heard. “Photographing for me is very intentional act; I work very slowly and shoot with the old school 4x5 cameras.” The photographer, himself, is a work of art. He traveled throughout parts of the world and saw how people outside were living. The difference of living was magnificent and that frustrated him a bit enough to want to do something about it. “My social lens I viewed the world through was completely shattered. Coming back from South Africa, I saw a photography book and fell in love with the medium.” “I became infatuated with photography and like many people who get infatuated with something; I just up and quit my job.” Menjivar made it his passion to become a photographer for the world and to bring social issues to the light. There are so many mediums that can be used to show what the world is truly going through and fortunately for the art lover, Menjivar’s photographs show just that. “I put a lot of effort into making the photograph be beautiful.” Menjivar’s, You Are What You Eat series is one of those works where it is more than meets the eye or the old adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The series
was the first major project that he worked on. There is an underlying meaning to the series other than just the interior of people’s refrigerator. “One night I walked in my kitchen and opened my refrigerator door, stood there for a moment and then closed the door. I was like, gosh, why don’t I just take a picture of the refrigerator.” Menjivar explains that he did 10 sets of portraits where he photographed the refrigerator then took a portrait of the person putting the photographs side by side. Unfortunately that concept didn’t sit well with him. “When I laid them all out, side by side the project was really becoming about judgment. There is a lot of diversity in the project and judgment is not a hook for
me so I threw out the work and started over again.” Focusing more on the portrait rather than the person the project began to evolve into the amazing exhibition that it is now. One would think approaching a random person and asking if they can take a picture of their refrigerator would be an odd offer but people actually went along with Menjivar. Traveling through 23 states, talking to people and taking pictures, Menjivar was grateful for the accomplishment and ready to show that art is actually everywhere. “I would try to find some way to start a natural conversation with them, tell them who I was, what I was doing and the reason why I was passionate about food issues. Then I would invite them to do the project with me. I asked 70 people and two or three said no.” There is more to photographing a refrigerator’s content to Menjivar. The meaning of this exhibition to him is about world hunger and the food crisis. “I wanted people to be thoughtful about where their food is coming from, what’s happening to the land and what our responsibility is.” He wants people to know that not only are people starving in third-world countries but there are people experiencing hunger in the US. The exhibit is an immaculate perception of the food that is being consumed and stored by the average person. There is obviously more than meets the eye. If you’re wondering what Menjivar’s refrigerator looks like, no problem I asked. “I have a pot of chicken stew, olives, bread, almond milk, beer and all the other condiments.”
Nov. - Dec. 2011