Personal Beauty by Renell Medrano

Photography is Renell Medrano’s primary mode of communication and has been since she was 14. “Honestly, photography has been everything I wanted to do since I was a kid. I use to steal my mom’s point-and-shoot and take it to school to document my friends. I just felt like that was my voice.” Now, at 27, the medium is her way of responding to the world. Blurring the lines between documentary and fashion, she’s using photography to connect, celebrate and rework the power dynamics in popular culture.

Medrano’s work is deeply personal. Informed by the people and places that have shaped her life, both past and present, she blends her unique take on beauty with real-life circumstances. The textural quality of her photographs recalls the loving gaze of Liz Johnson Artur’s Nineties documentation of black Britain, and the colour play of William Eggleston. Unlike her peers, she’s not interested in limiting her vision to the highlights reel. Flaws and imperfections inspire her. She’s thinking about spaces, intimacy and vulnerability – the stylings are secondary. Her truly unique work serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of telling our own stories.

Finding fame in an era of digital democratisation was a game-changer for Medrano, who has been publishing her work on Tumblr for years. “After graduating, I had that hunger and drive in me, so I just hustled. I would post my work all the time. Sharing to get the word out and have people see my work. In some ways, it was perfect timing for me. When everything started switching up, you could make your Instagram your entire portfolio.”

Medrano is part of a new generation of young black image-makers who create photos that straddle art and fashion with a broader set of intentions. Moving away from the traditional pursuit of glamour, they are telling stories of social and political inclusivity, advocating for a wider celebration of beauty and the self – a powerful antidote for a group previously marginalised in mainstream fashion and culture. “I don’t want us to get put in a category. It’s easy for publications and brands to now be like, ‘Let’s get a black photographer to shoot it so that they can get the exposure.’ I don’t agree with that. We’ve been amazing before this moment.” Self-determination has been both her secret weapon and a necessity for Medrano. In previous interviews, she’s shared the struggles she’s encountered while assisting, and how she felt alien being the only black girl on set. “I just used my inner resources. I’m so happy to be a part of what’s happening now. It’s amazing, breaking barriers every day.”

Growing up in the Bronx shaped Medrano and had a profound effect on her definition of beauty. “Growing up in urbanised communities, you wouldn’t think the people and places I was around were beautiful, but for me, I saw beauty in that rawness, and I take that everywhere with me.” Growing up surrounded by family and friends, she learnt that “self-love is self-acceptance”, an ethos she tries to share with the kids in her community. “I feel like people have this bad perception of the Bronx and I try and make it relatable to everybody. There are a lot of places like that, and I feel like we need to embrace them. I want the world to know there is beauty in everything, in all people.”

Untitled Youth, an intimate look at the lives of four teenage girls growing up in the Bronx, was her undergraduate thesis project at Parsons School of Design, where she earned her BFA in 2014. The series, which mirrors her uptown upbringing, was an immersive two-year project in which she documented all aspects of her subjects’ daily lives. Medrano imbues these regular girls with agency and strength, championing their ‘perfectly imperfect’ beauty to empower them and ensure they feel seen. She says that Parsons initially felt “far-fetched” for her “as it was so hard to get in. But I decided just to do it, and give it my all”. She tells me, “I even went to the enrolment office and made sure they knew I wanted to go there.” The series established Medrano as one to watch and won the New York Times Lens Blog Award.

It’s been a busy few years for Medrano, who has built up an incredible portfolio collaborating with Nike, Gucci and Jimmy Choo, shooting covers and creating album art for A$AP Ferg, H.E.R. and Chaka Khan. Today, she’s created a short film with music video director Thuan Tran as part of Peluca, her first ever solo show that opened at New York’s Milk Studios this September – the same venue that also hosted her thesis show. I’m curious if she ever worries about over-exposure? “We live in such a fast world. Everything is given to us so fast. It kinda scares me; I keep trying to slow it down,” she tells me. “It does create anxiety for people. Social media is just encouraging us to put so much out to stay relevant. I try not to let that pace define me or my work.” Being conscious of career longevity can often mean making difficult choices: “I think about what will we have left for later. I say no to a lot more now. Even when it’s a great opportunity, sometimes I say no, it can just be so much.”

For Medrano, creating energy and intimacy on demand is tough. “I honestly try and capture moments that mean something to me. Clients freak out sometimes, asking for mood boards. I get it. But you guys hire us; just let us do our thing. In documentary, whatever happens is what you get. I try and explain the vibe I’m going for but it’s on set that the magic happens for me.” I ask how she navigates busy sets. “My team get it,” she tells me. “They don’t hover behind my back. They walk off set and let it happen and then get excited to see the photos a week later.” Her approach is instinctual; she prefers not to direct. “I love to have my subject live in the space we are in and just let things happen. I think that’s why my work feels personal. It’s just about me and the subject.”

Five-years on from her graduate show at Milk Gallery, she returned this autumn with Peluca. Named after the Spanish term for ‘wig’, it’s an immersive exploration of the complex dynamics of wig culture and their recent shift into the mainstream. The 25-image show included the aforementioned collaboration with Tran; an extraordinarily sized wig installation by hairstylist, Evanie Frausto, and – the focal point – a ‘salon experience’ installation with set designer, Lauren Nikrooz, where a model got their hair done in front of the crowd. “Peluca came from me reflecting on my work and questioning the role hair and wigs play in my stories. When I was younger, I’d be in the salon two-to-three times a week surrounded by real women. Salons were always such a private and safe space for us. I feel like back in the day talking about wigs was not a thing. It would be looked down upon, so we were scared to embrace it.”

The show was a defining moment for Medrano, both personally and professionally. Tired of her images only existing on social media, the act of framing them and having her community come out and connect with the work was transformational. “I wanna inspire people and move people, not just with photos. This living thing had a real impact on people.” Personally, the show gave her purpose. “The energy was amazing on the opening. Kids need to see our community like that. I want to keep the community involved and create hope for them as well.”

Grit tempered by tenderness has made her a go-to for musicians. Medrano’s recent portraits of musician Dev Hynes (AKA Blood Orange) are both candid and disarming. Hynes sits casually in a pared-back studio wearing a variety of sculptural wigs that transform how we see him. “I’m very picky about the artists that I photograph. Dev is amazing, he trusts my eye. It was a small set, just the three of us, playing around with wigs. All my favourite shoots tend to happen when we are free. We feel each other’s energy. That’s how I usually do my best work.”

She continues: “I hate the word ‘celebrity’. We are all waiting to see them all glammed up in perfect light. I remember shooting Megan Thee Stallion and people at first were like, ‘This is not her.’ But I love how I took her from that element and brought her to the Bronx, somewhere she’s never been.” This is Medrano’s trademark, she shoots celebrities as regulars. She grounds them in reality, in places and spaces that feel familiar, lived-in and honest. The images she captures are intimate and authentic. Illusive moments where her subjects let go and reveal aspects of their interior personas. They are free to have fun, to nerd out, to inhabit the emotional space usually reserved for family and friends. “I treat my subjects all equally. Honestly, I don’t even ‘fan out’ anymore. In the beginning, I used to feel pressure, I was so nervous. But what I realised is that we are all the same and me not viewing their status changed everything. They know what they’re worth and who they are. I treat them as regulars because they are.”

For photographers, transitioning to being in front of the lens can be a challenging and disorientating encounter. When I ask Medrano about her experience shooting herself for the cover of this issue, she tells me: “I discovered it was interesting.” Aiming to capture the same vulnerability she achieves with her subjects, she explains, “At first I was super nervous, there are so many different ways of doing it. There wasn’t much prepping. I played around with wigs again to explore different aspects of my personality. I was a character that I am only in my head.”

As viewers of her work we experience a lot of Medrano’s inner emotions through her photographs, and in many ways, her creative work is a loving gift to the community who helped make her. With a history of greatness behind her, who knows what her next move will be. But one truth remains: she’s turbocharged and just getting started.

“Beauty in everything”: the deeply personal photography of Renell Medrano. By Gem Fletcher. Sleek  , February 18, 2020.

New York-based photographer Renell Medrano has long explored her hometown in her work. Previous series have seen the image-maker document teenage girls in the Bronx, where she was born (Untitled Youth, 2014, her Parsons thesis project), while Peluca, exhibited last year in New York, compiled imagery from Medrano’s editorial archive to explore the power of wigs. “I carry this very scenic backstory – growing up in the Bronx,” she told Antwaun Sargent in his 2019 book The New Black Vanguard. “I try to portray that in my images.”

For her most recent project, entitled Pampara, Medrano explored some of her family heritage further afield. Her parents are from the Dominican Republic, and having spent holidays there since she was a child, Medrano has long wanted to photograph the country. The series was commissioned by WePresent and will show in London today, marking Medrano’s first European exhibition.

“I wanted to go back and pay homage to my parents’ culture,” Medrano tells AnOther, “and shine a light on what is part of me: the people, the culture, the freedom and the innocence [in the Dominican Republic]. I thought, how come I have never photographed what is so special and a part of me?”

The series’ title, Pampara, is a Dominican saying that translates from Spanish to “it’s lit”. There is an undeniable energy to the warm, vivid portraits in the series, which capture people in San Cristóbal and Santiago, where Medrano’s father is from. “I let people come to me, and usually that’s how I work when it comes to documenting,” Medrano explains. “It was not about me finding subjects, it was more about what I connected to.” This approach meant that those she photographed ranged from her grandmother – “the photo of my grandma is my favourite; it makes me feel nostalgic as that was where I had my naps after playing all day long, as it was the only room that had air conditioning” – to children on the beach or playing in the street or women in their homes.

“My memories from spending time there as a child are of feeling liberated, my grandmother’s cooking, and the roosters waking me up in the morning,” Medrano says. The Caribbean nation has undoubtedly influenced her photography, explaining that “the people, the environment and the vulnerability are what I carry with me in my practice”. While previous projects have explored life in New York, returning to her parents’ home country for the first time since she was teenaged marks a renewed perspective and a homecoming for the Dominican American photographer.

Photographer Renell Medrano’s Vivid Portrait of the Dominican Republic. By Belle Hutton.  Another Magazine, February 18, 2020. 

At just 27, Dominican-American photographer Renell Medrano has built an enviable portfolio (recent subjects include Jay-Z and Solange). The new decade power credentials don’t end there: Medrano is backed by an impressive social-media following and real-life friendships with the figures at the centre of our virtual worlds – Bella, Kendall and Justine Skye are all friends. It could sound too good to be true, were it not for the fact that Medrano began putting in the groundwork aged 14, turning her point-and-shoot on the Bronx community she grew up alongside.

At 18, she enrolled on a photography course at NYC’s hallowed Parsons School of Design, where her talent for evoking a sense of vulnerability on film flourished. Outside class, Medrano quickly drew a slew of loyal devotee’s on Tumblr, thanks to her stream of unfiltered visual diary entries. “I used to post the work I was making by constantly shooting everything and everyone around me,” she tells Vogue.

During London Fashion Week autumn/winter ’20/’21, this rising star is set to unveil a deeply personal layer to her work with a debut solo exhibition that explores her Dominican heritage. Entitled Pampara (loosely translated from Spanish as ‘it’s lit’), the show is an unabashed ode to countless euphoric summers spent in the Dominican Republic. From her parents' birthplace, to discovering Santiago and San Cristobal with fresh eyes, Medrano talks to Vogue about the pride and passion within her images.

What inspired Pampara?

“I wanted people to feel connected to a place I’m connected to; it may not be a culture they’re familiar with, but culture is a worldwide language. I remember visits to the Dominican Republic, when I was younger, and hanging out with my cousins who were a few years older than me and neighbourhood friends. It was little things like that I enjoyed. Spending time there, sharing laughs, dancing and telling stories with new people was a freeing feeling.”

You spent childhood summers there, why was it important to go back to the DR now?

“I was so caught up with work, and I had to stop and think about what’s important. It just felt like the right time to go. The Dominican Republic is my parents’ home and I’m old enough now to understand why those visits were so special. My subjects were curious about what I was doing, and my camera, but speaking Spanish made them feel comfortable. Sometimes [that community] can feel as though people are trying to exploit them, but with my parents coming from there and me having spent time there, it felt authentic.”

Your images capture candid, vulnerable, moments. What was the thought process behind a few of them?

“The photo with balloons on the girls’ heads signifies the hair baubles all the young girls wore, so I had my stylist, Nathan Klein, exaggerate what I saw growing up. The girls represent a younger me. The two boys in the sand showed the vulnerable side of men in my culture, I felt like these two kids playing with each other looked to a fragile side [of masculinity]. I wanted to create moving images as well, to give sound and language, because stills would not be enough to capture the depth and essence of that country.”

Your grandmother is featured in the exhibition, what is the story behind this?

“My grandmother would often visit us in New York. She would babysit me and my siblings, so I was close to her. We would pray together before bed and when we woke up. One of my favourite images in the exhibition is of her on my parents' bed. I’ve never photographed her in a vulnerable way, she’s always been this tough cookie. I captured her image in their bedroom; I used to sneak in there when I was younger and take a nap when I was tired from playing out in the sun, so it felt special.”

What were your biggest challenges in visiting the DR to make Pampara?

“It was a lot to take in because it was my first time going there to shoot. It was overwhelming, I didn't know where to start. It felt like a week wasn’t enough. I want to make another trip to cover more ground. But I started roaming around and didn’t force anything. If I did run into something and I loved it, I’d try to return to it the following day. Next time, I think I’ll have a better sense of what I’m going back for.”

Inside photographer Renell Medrano’s euphoric debut solo show, Pampara. By Eni Subair. Vogue , February 18, 2020

Photographer Renell Medrano's first big break came through a photo series titled "Untitled Youth," in 2014. The project was a compelling look into the everyday lived experiences of four young friends over two years in the Bronx, where Medrano was born and brought up.

But for her latest series, she returned to the Dominican Republic, where her parents are from and where she used to spend summers as a child.

Titled "Pampara" (meaning "lit" in Spanish but open to multiple meanings such as "It's on!"), it captures the everyday reality of life on the Island nation, with images featuring young boys basking in the Caribbean sun whilst laying in the sand, a smiling woman wearing a t-shirt adorned with the words "Brown Barbie Babe" and a mother and child in color-matching outfits.

The 18 shots of the community inhabiting San Cristobal and Santiago are presented in her signature style, recognizable for its high-contrast colors and the unfiltered documentary-style portraits of its subjects.

Medrano's portfolio is already rich with famous names -- she did an IG-ready photo series of Kylie Jenner's Turks and Caicos vacation, photographed cover art for musicians including Justine Skye, H.E.R and A$AP Ferg, and has photographed Bella Hadid, Solange and Jay-Z, among others.

CNN Style spoke to her about her most personal series yet, which she told us "came to me authentically and naturally."

CNN: You used to take photos in the Dominican Republic, where your family is from, during the summer. What was different about shooting this collection of photos?

Renell Medrano: I was more focused and aware of my surroundings and what I wanted to photograph. Before, I'd be visiting family members and I was just living with it.

You feature a lot of women in this series. Was this a conscious decision?

It wasn't a conscious decision, but I did realize that when I was photographing women, especially the young females, I kind of saw myself within them. That could be a reason why I feature a lot of women throughout the series.

You also shoot for brands, musicians and fashion magazines where the production is more elaborate. How do you inject emotion and grab people when you don't have additional elements to dial up the energy of a photo?

I actually work better when it's not set up, when it's more candid. I also feel like that's how I got into photography in the first place -- I was always documenting what was around me. For some reason I tend to capture vulnerability in people, that's what's strong about my images.

Did anything surprise you about this experience?

Just how comfortable people were with me photographing them out there. Me shooting them reminded me of my childhood and my upbringing out in DR.

I'm curious about the shot of two girls standing by the pay phone with the yellow and green balloons in their hair.

The big balloons in their hair are an exaggerated form of the bobbles I used to wear when I was younger. I had a stylist enlarge them to make a statement about me and my culture -- the balloons represent my younger self.

The shot of the two girls playing cards also stood out, what can you tell us about this photograph?

Two girls playing cards was more candid. I was walking around the neighborhood and these two twins were playing cards but their look was just so androgynous which kind of drew me to them. I took the photo and the girl stared at me like that -- that's how the photo came about.

Who inspires you creatively?

The way I get my inspiration is really through Tumblr, I tend to use it as a moodboard. I've been on Tumblr for a very long time, it's how I got started and gained my following in the first place.

Do you feel a real sense of homecoming when you visit?

I did feel a sense of homecoming, I mean I always feel welcomed when I do go back to DR. Whether it's my family members seeing me -- I always get a lot of love when I got back, and it just feels liberating.

 Dominican American photographer Renell Medrano's most personal series yet. By Hena Sharma. CNN , February 19, 2020

It goes without saying that where you grew up – the colours, people, architecture, sounds, smells of a place – play a huge role in who you become as a person. But what about the family roots that are in your blood, and perhaps in tiny snippets of childhood memories, but not your upbringing? How far can they impact who you are as an individual, and the sort of work you make as a creative?

Photographer and director Renell Medrano was born and raised in the Bronx, New York – a place she’s spoken about fondly. “Growing up, I was always sitting in a salon with a few other females, Black, Hispanic, and we were always getting our hair done – that was like our sanctuary, that was like our safe space. It was a community,” she told Time magazine last year.

But for all her love of that community, Medrano has also long been fascinated by her family’s heritage and her roots as a Dominican-American. In order to pay homage to this heritage, turn the lens on rarely documented communities and provide a celebratory photographic love letter to her parents, Medrano decided to take a trip to the Dominican Republic. It was a journey that proved at once physical, spiritual and revelatory in terms of explaining aspects of her creative process.

The trip resulted in a new body of work, including 18 photographs and a short film co-directed with Thuan Tran, that is about to go on display in a London exhibition entitled Pampara, which takes its name from the Spanish translation for ‘it’s lit’.

The new pieces showcase Medrano’s return to her homeland-of-sorts, navigating the Dominican as both a largely unfamiliar geographical space and a site that’s had a profound impact on her perspective. Pampara, which was commissioned by the editorial arm of WeTransfer’s WePresent, narrates her return through her interactions with the area’s natural beauty, architectural peccadilloes, and more importantly the frequently larger-than-life personalities that inhabit it.

It’s these people that make Medrano’s images so captivating: whether her subjects are staring directly into the lens, or caught apparently off-guard, they demonstrate the photographer’s ongoing commitment to showcasing a sense of community and its importance in an age where such bonds are rapidly ebbing away.

In one image, a mother and daughter stand together in colour configurations that are so well matched to one another and their surroundings as to look like a meticulously structured, pastel toned editorial; in another, children peer curiously at the camera with an air of both “an’ wot?!” and barely concealed fascination. The rich shades of baby pink, yellow and sunwashed blue bring a sense of nostalgia and calm to the shots, as though Medrano has perhaps finally come ‘home’ in her immortalisation of a place that’s meant so much to her and her elders.

Acting as a personal visual storybook, the series demonstrates how a place that she might not have been wholly connected to in terms of her actual presence while growing up has had a deep impact on the way she works today: consider the vibrant colours she uses; the careful combinations of tones; sunlit streets that feel hot to even look at; and her witty knack for capturing bags of charisma in a static image.

There’s innocence in some photographs – two boys snoozily roll about in sand, apparently without a care in the world – and experience, too, with one photograph cropped to reveal just midriff tattoos and the proudly worn stretch marks that act as topographical markers of a life. The images act as a love letter of sorts to Medrano’s parents and their heritage; as well as an exploration of her roots, and the impact they have had on a more ambiguous level on her creative process today.

Medrano’s approach to photography acts as an exploration of geographical and social terrains, as well as a mirror of her emotional preoccupations. Her work showcases the possibilities for community and cohesion through art, via images that are both intimate and unapologetic.

“Pampara is me going back to my Dominican roots and exploring that in depth for the first time, my adult self returning to the culture and community I was surrounded by growing up,” says Medrano. “I wanted to pay homage to the loving energy and beauty of the Dominican way of life and let it shine for the world to see. My Dominican roots are embedded in my being and now I’m older I can see they are the reason why I shoot the way I do.”

Renell Medrano explores how heritage can shape the creative process. By Emily Gosling. Creative Review, February 18, 2020. 

At the opening night of photographer Renell Medrano’s show, Peluca, chopped cheese sandwiches and snow cones were passed around as a hair stylist sewed in a woman’s weave, the focal point of a single salon chair installation in the center of Milk Gallery that was part grooming, part performance art. The show, which draws its name from the Spanish word for “wig,” is a 25-image rumination on the complex dynamics of wig culture, but also functions as an homage to Medrano’s New York City roots, the vibrant environment and community that shaped the way she sees the world.

“Growing up, I was always sitting in a salon with a few other females, Black, Hispanic, and we were always getting our hair done — that was like our sanctuary, that was like our safe space,” she told TIME. “It was a community.”

The collection of images, which explore themes like the stigma and mainstreaming of wigs in society, range from an unflinching and intimate portrait of the musician Dev Hynes in a towering, tightly-curled wig to the picture that inspired the exhibit: a shot of a woman with a voluminous red mane, sitting in a car with an interior nearly the same shade as her hair. Medrano’s saturated photos all share the same calm intensity — rawness tempered by tenderness, an element that’s made her work the go-to for a new generation of creatives like Solange Knowles, Virgil Abloh and Tyler the Creator.

The 27-year-old Medrano picked up her first camera at 14, a point-and-shoot she borrowed from her mother that she would use to take pictures of her friends at school and during summers spent with her grandmother in the Dominican Republic. Later, as her love for photography grew, she would post her photos on Tumblr, where she would catalogue them according to “a vibe,” or the feeling they evoked, a process she still uses while selecting images for her Instagram account, which boasts nearly 300k followers.

In recent years, Medrano’s penchant for vibrant color and her ability to create intimate portraiture has made her a mainstay of the fashion and music space. She’s shot album covers for H.E.R., Justine Skye, and her partner, A$AP Ferg, as well as covers and editorials for magazines like Office, Wonderland, and The Fader.

She credits her eye and instinct to being born and raised in the Bronx, where she says she found that she learned to appreciate finding beauty in unconventional places and discovered that “beauty was the ugly.”

“Growing up in the Bronx is about embracing the ugly and making it beautiful,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not a top model that you see as my subject, but I try to embrace that everyone is beautiful.”

For Medrano, Peluca also holds a special personal nostalgia.

“It’s kind of funny because 5 years ago, I had my group exhibition show at Milk, for my thesis at Parsons, so it’s kind of cool to see how 5 years from now, I got my own solo show at Milk,” she said. “I remember thinking all I really care about is just taking photos and I’m still here and I’m still doing it.”

Renell Medrano’s Peluca Finds Beauty in Her Roots. By Cady Lang . Time , September 7, 2019.

More  :

Renell Mendrano Pampara. By Micha Frazer-Carroll. WePresent , 2020

Renell Medrano's year in photos.  By Ryan White.   i-D  , December 10   2019. 

Renell Medrano’s Photographs Capture The Power of Wigs. By Stephanie Eckhardt. W Magazine , September  14 , 2019

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