Photography Exhibit Offers Glimpse into the Lives of Migrant Workers in The Dalles
Gigio, a farm larborer viewing Méndez’s photography at the opening reception.
By Cole Goodwin
A new mixed-media art exhibit at The Dalles Art Center, featuring photography and audio recordings by Ernesto Méndez offers the viewer a glance into the lives of migrant farm laborers in The Dalles. The exhibit is sponsored by Sandra Leibham.
Ernesto Méndez and his friend Alfredo pose in front of Méndez’s photography exhibit at The Dalles Art Center.
“This exhibition is a glance at what a common laborer lives during cherry season; it’s just a small slice of the story, but a story that not everyone in the Columbia River Gorge is aware of,” said Méndez.
Ernesto Méndez, age 34, self-described post-punk artist, is an independent filmmaker and photographer who grew up in Mexico City and spent two years of his childhood in Havana, Cuba. Méndez’s exhibit at The Dalles Art Center follows in the footsteps of his recent slice-of-life documentary Soy Yo Charlie Monttana (2020), which followed the late famous Mexican rock star Charlie Monttana.
“Some people don't like the documentary because it’s very daily life-like. Ha!” said Méndez. “I wasn’t very interested in his rockstar-ism, his appearance, and the facade that all performers have. I was dedicated to talking with the person behind the mask. What are his demons? What are his frustrations? What does he crave and why? It’s more of a psychological portrait of a creative person who is also a father and an alcoholic and also a famous rock musician.”
Much like his cinematography his new photography and audio exhibit capture the sometimes mundane daily-life moments of migrant workers. The sounds heard are that of birds calling, a working song, and passing cars underneath a steel bridge. And the images are unguarded portraits of migrant workers and the working agricultural landscape which is shaped by both time and humankind.
Méndez does not romanticize nor demonize with his imagery, he presents each image as it is, without pretense, taking an almost photojournalistic approach to his work. Although the choice to print in black and white lends a nostalgic quality to the images.
Columbia River Gorge, Summer of 2020. Photo by Ernesto Méndez picturing a pregnant woman playing with her children in the Columbia River.
On the farm. Photo by Ernesto Méndez.
“The picking of the cherry is like a war. I always had the feeling that I was part of an army there because people carry these huge terrible aluminum ladders with a pole in the middle which is very complicated to deal with. I was always surprised when the young Mexican girls were so skilled with the ladders; it was impressive.”
“To me, the orchards are like the Orchards of Wrath- you know like the Grapes of Wrath, the great American classic about depression era times. You see the best and the worst there. I don’t romanticize. I don’t see people as heroes. People are people, here and everywhere,” said Méndez. “Everyone is pursuing their own agenda. Americans just want to squeeze the juice from the Mexicans and the Mexicans only want the dollars and to have more dollars. I could see in their eyes that every cherry was like a dollar for them. They were desperate, and they were desperate to get the money to send home and to improve their lives.”
Running with Cherries. Photo by Ernesto Méndez.
The Aztec Warrior. Photo by Ernesto Méndez. Migrant workers are integral to The Dalles orchardists working landscape. In this portrait, the viewer becomes lost in the leaves of the cherry trees before noticing the proud face peeking out from the leaves. The figure's face is the picture of focus, perfectly framed amongst the leaves, yet so small-you could almost miss it. The figure is not hiding but is hidden all the same. Méndez said the subject in this photo held a resemblance to “the noble Aztec warrior” and said the subject was “at one with the landscape”.
Many of the moments captured by Méndez may seem at once familiar and unfamiliar to locals, like something glimpsed from another person’s dream.
“I think black and white gets you more into the nostalgia-dreamlike of the situation. Color is just too real. But don't get me wrong, I love color too,” said Méndez.
Each image is printed on hemp and kozo (mulberry) paper, and in some places, the level of ink saturation creates an image that is only recognizable from a distance.
Photos and portraits by Ernesto Méndez.
The Narrative is What You Make It
Méndez said the exhibition’s narrative was about the daily life of migrant workers, but that the deeper meaning of it was for the viewer to decide.
“I want the Mexicans and the Americans to get along and be friends, but that’s not the goal of the exhibition, it has many meanings and anyone can build their own narrative inside it,” said Méndez.
One image in particular in Méndez’s exhibition seems to capture Méndez’s sentiment. In the image two men, an American man of 92 years of age and a Mexican migrant worker embrace in friendship.
“They are dancing,” said Méndez as he looked at the photo.
“No, they are hugging,” said Méndez’s friend Alfredo who attended the opening reception.
The Dance / The Embrace. Photo by Ernesto Méndez picturing two men, Jim, an American man of 95 and Efraín, a Mexican farm laborer embracing.
Challenging Narrative’s Need for Meaning
Many images challenge the viewer to find meaning, in the sometimes absurd and random happenings that occur in life. And at first, each image can appear almost random, dream-like, and captionless without context.
Such images include that of a person in a panda suit sitting on a loading dock, the reflection of a cat in a window, and a discarded lazy boy chair in a field, a foot blocking the late afternoon light in a window.
But upon closer inspection of the images, the viewer can find ways to explore the narrative that is present within themselves.
The Panda of Dallesport. Photo by Ernesto Méndez. When asked why there was a Panda in this photo Méndez said “I don’t know. You tell me.”
Photos by Ernesto Méndez. Méndez said that it would often still be light out when he needed to go to sleep, so that he could get enough rest before waking early in the morning. So he would use his foot to block the afternoon light coming in from the window.
Showcasing Diversity at The Dalles Art Center
This most recent art exhibit is part of an effort to invite diverse artists and art lovers to the The Dalles Art Center to showcase their work and view the work of other artists.
Ernesto Méndez talks with Amelia and Saul Villalobos about his photography at the opening reception.
Alfredo poses with his friend Gigio at Méndez’s photography exhibit.
See it for Yourself
Méndez’s photography will be on display at The Dalles Art Center until August 28th.
An Interview with the Artist
Self Portrait by Ernesto Méndez. Ernesto Méndez, 34, filmmaker, photographer, and barista and works in San Francisco digitizing old films to preserve them.
Where are you from/ where did you grow up?
Mexico City. But when I was 6 I went to live in Havana, Cuba, for two years.
How has your experience of The Dalles and the Columbia River Gorge been?
I love this part of the world. You have good coffee too.
What has your photography and film journey been like?
I found my profession very young. At 19 I had decided that I wanted to be a photographer. I wanted to become a photojournalist. But my vision was very different. I really tried but my editors were always like “What are you doing? This is not journalism.”
So I started film school at 22 in Mexico City. I was fed up with the school, the rules, the elite rewards of the little middle-class Mexican. But I wanted to be on the street doing my own thing without anyone telling me what to do. I have always been a rebel. I don’t like institutions or hierarchies.
So that’s how I began. It was very difficult as a freelancer. Last year I finished my first feature documentary about a Mexican rockstar and it did good in a few festivals in Mexico. It aired on TV, streamed. He was a well-known icon of the independent rock scene in Mexico so he had many followers and he died last year. So now it’s a testament to his life.
What motivates you to do photography and documentary work?
My lost childhood? Haha, It must be something like that. I'm very interested in cultures and the madness of the human condition, but only as a hobby, like a silly witness that makes some records just to get through time.
What brought you to The Dalles to photograph?
My friend Alfredo!
I come from a middle-class background. I went to University in Mexico City and I went to school with this guy. His name was Alfredo. Like me, he was supposed to be a scholar or an architect, you know the nice things families want for middle-class boys. But he also was never into the whole structure of school or work and university.
So while I was first pursuing my career as a photojournalist he decided to earn a living in the states. His sister’s boyfriend's family came every year to The Dalles to pick fruit. They were Mexican-American, and they invited him to come here for the first time in 2004-2005. As the years past he became famous because he used to disappear around May and then come back to the city around August or even September. He was famous because he had money, he didn’t have to go to University and crack the books. He would say to us “Well, I go to Oregon and pick cherries.”
So this guy was very strange.
All the adults in our life were super obsessed with us going to the university and doing something nice with our life. But he chose a different path. And I could tell he was a very happy person because he’s in love with the land, with the people, mostly Mexicans from the very, very, deep countryside. Like hardcore countryside. It was very strange for me as a city dweller to meet the people like the Mexicans who come to pick cherries every year. So he was fascinated because these people seemed like they were almost from another world. (We share some things but the values were very different, different perspectives, their culture was very different.) But Alfredo really enjoyed being in the company of these very warm-hearted people.
La bandera Ñuu Savi torrencial sobre el Río Columbia. Photo by Ernesto Méndez. Méndez’s friend Alfredo and his friend, Francisco, a Mixteco-American individual hold up the Ñuu Savi-Mixtec flag that Francisco made to symbolize his nation. Mixtecos call themselves Ñuu Savi ("Mixteco" is a mispronunciation from the Spaniards), which means "The people from the rain". Alfredo said that his friend had been feeling very sad that his indigenous culture and language were being lost due to Spanish colonization of Mexico and wanted to channel that into creating something to symbolize his tribe. Francisco grew up in a region of Oaxaca, where they speak Tu'un Savi, also known as Mixteco. Like many Mixtecos who come to work in the US, he learned first English and then Spanish. He had to learn Spanish later on because sometimes Tu'un Savi-Mixteco language variants are so different that they don't understand each other, so they have to use Spanish as "Lingua Franca".
And I felt some of that too when I first came here. I could tell the light was very special, the air, there was something very special about this part of the world. But anyway, when Alfredo was young he fell in love with this place and now he comes every year. And for him, it was about earning a livelihood, and being productive but also kind of spiritual, like a ritual. He’s a certified diver, he knows the Caribbean very well, he could earn a living doing something else but the guy just loves to come here every year.
So as the years pass by he falls more and more in love with this place and he stays a little longer each year- now I think he stays for six months- he arrives in May and he goes back to Mexico in late October.
Photo by Ernesto Méndez. Alfredo and Nicodemo go shopping for swim goggles. Alfredo is an avid swimmer.
And then our stories linked up in 2018 when I was divorcing. It was a rough time for me. It was a very shocking thing that happened in my life. I decided to stop photography for a while because it was an obsession. I was always thinking about photos and how to get better and how to get a better camera and how to dive more into analog photography. And it was very time-consuming and I was already editing the documentary. The shooting took a little more than three years. So I had to edit around one-hundred or more hours of material.
But I was very lost emotionally and psychologically. I was cracked inside. Then I and Alfredo met randomly outside my therapist's office. It was just a totally random thing. We were friends but not close friends- more like friends of friends. And he told me, ‘Hey, since you are in this period of your life, why don’t you come to Oregon and travel and meet the beautiful Columbia River and you can earn some money? If you are tired of photography and all that, come here and I’ll help you.”
So I took his word and he helped me find a job here as a checker for cherry harvest and I met his friends and they were really helpful and he introduced me to his whole world here. And I really felt grateful and I really appreciated that a man could be so generous.
Cherry pickers after work. Photo by Ernesto Méndez.
He gave me all the tips on how to save money. Because the idea is to save money while you’re here and save that money for when you go back to Mexico. That’s the idea of most pickers, to spend just a little money while you're here, so that when you come back to Mexico someday you can have a better life.
So I did it for a season and it was obvious to me that I didn’t fit. I mean my friend really loves to work in the fields and after so many years he had the endurance and know-how to do it. He’s a professional field laborer. I was very surprised to find that this middle-class boy was practically a professional farmer working side by side with the Mexicans from the countryside. So I said this is good for me, but it wasn’t my thing. So I started to look for other options.
Had you ever done agricultural work before?
Not at all.
My background is Marxist middle class (quite a category in Mexico), my mother wanted me to be a Marxist economist or scholar haha.
Méndez returned to photography and film following his first season working cherry harvest, but when COVID hit he came back to Oregon again to earn some extra money.
I was more into photography again and I had my film camera with me this time and a wide-angle lens. So I was more prepared.
The first time I came I had only an iPhone and that was my way of freeing myself from the fetishes of film and proving to myself that I didn’t need a camera to be creative.
What inspired you to start photographing the cherry harvest?
I was just having too many new experiences, and I was very attached to the medium of photography as my way to react to experiences. Although I didn't know at the time if I wanted to continue photographing, I was overwhelmed by creative and life crises. Three years after my divorce I still was not doing very well with photography. So my goal wasn’t to photograph cherry harvest really, it was more like a form of therapy and just learning to create a better relationship with photography.
Photo by Ernesto Méndez.
What camera(s) did you use?
They say that the camera is not relevant as long as you have a vision and a connection. In this case, I half-accomplished that because half of the pictures of the exhibition were shot with an iPhone 4S. Then, of course, I tricked those in DXO FilmPack, added film-like grain and blur and fake optical aberrations. I had to work the .jpeg files very carefully to get them to look more like film. I just don't like the digital look, it's something personal. The majority of my photographic work has been on film since 2010.
Also, last year, when I was working at the packing plant, I brought my film cameras. I had a Canon EOS SLR and two lenses, the 70-200 f/4 IS and the 24mm f/1.4 II. Also, I had a fancy point and shoot camera, a Nikon 28 Ti. The film was Fomapan 400, developed in Rodinal, and pushed three stops (I love grain!).
Why did you choose black and white photos instead of color for this exhibit?
It's something sentimental I guess because I love to develop black and white and to print optically in the darkroom. The black and white negatives are less delicate than the color ones. Also, I think black and white gets you more into the nostalgia-dreamlike of the situation. Color is just too real. But don't get me wrong, I love color too!
Early Morning Risers. Photo by Ernesto Méndez.
What do you hope people take away from this exhibit?
The sound! I'm more interested in the sound part. Sound is pure magic. You'll hear it in the exhibition. We're having an 8-track set up in a loop. Ant they are commissioned sound pieces! I have the fortune to have talented and curious friends. I did many field recordings during my two cherry seasons (I just love to record sounds also... maybe that's why I'm a filmmaker?). Then I selected the most meaningful recordings and gave them to the composers. Jorge David García (teacher and composer based in Mexico City) created TOLT, and Andrei Rodriguez (Mexican mathematician and guitarist based in Santiago, Chile) did Work Song. I just told them "You have complete freedom, do whatever evokes you" and they did very interesting pieces.
See more of Méndez’s photography here.
