Meet Jazmine Hernandez Sanchez | Lens Based Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jazmine Hernandez Sanchez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jazmine, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Growing up as the oldest of three in a single parent household held its challenges. At the age of 9, I was put in the role of both daughter and caretaker. My mother was the sole provider for our family and was struggling working a full-time job and taking care of three children, I stepped up to help her make sure my siblings were taken care of. This included babysitting, making sure homework got done, and cooking lunches or dinner for us. There are many family dynamics that are similar to mine that lacked the resources needed to not only assist the parents but help the children as well. After school programs were a viable option to making sure we weren’t home alone, but the fees that they required started taking a toll. Not only did my mom have to make sure my brother and I were in a program but also make sure my younger sister had the care she needed. Programs in these underrepresented communities should not charge the amount of fees that they do in communities with a lower income threshold. As I grew older and started moving into middle school and high school, I noticed the lack of resources available to first generation students. As my peers started thinking about college and careers, I felt left behind in this discussion. My mother had not been given the opportunity to go to college and no one in my extended family had this experience either. I had no one to talk to in my friend group about this issue nor did I have a first gen program in place in my schools. Approaching my junior year in high school, I had no idea where to start in looking for colleges or majors that I would be interested in. As graduation approached, I found myself in a predicament. I had no college offers and no idea what marine biology was, but my career counselor advised me to apply into that major. I had no options, no direction, and no idea where to go from here. I investigated community college as way for me to still continue my education and knew it was an option. I began my first college classes at Cerritos Community College and started to get a concept of what it meant to be think about careers and what colleges I could have a second chance at. I started looking into photography as a potential major. I loved the idea of being able to us art as a way to express my emotions and be able to connect with people whom I had never met before. Using not only my experience as a person of color, but as well as a woman who overcame trauma at an early age is used to fuel my work and represent those who feel they don’t have a voice in this world. After I completed the necessary units, I decided to continue my education at Sacramento State.

While attending Sacramento State, I began to look inward. I realized the amount of resources that were available to the students on campus, the amount of support I was now about to have that I never experience before. Even though my classes were conducted in a virtual setting I still sought out to get to know my new campus. I looked for different ways to get involved and see what Sacramento State had to offer. Within my first semester, I joined as key member to a community outreach group called 65th Street Corridor Community Collaborative Project. In this group we worked closely with the schools that were apart 65th Street Corridor in Sacramento. The project was aimed to students from k-12 focusing on increasing student academic achievement, fostering student leadership, and improving parent participation for children living in neighborhoods where gang violence, a lack of access to resources and low civic engagement created a need for innovative, culturally competent strategies. Other components of the project included an Ethnic Studies Tutoring Mentorship Program to help facilitate access and preparation for college-level work, a Student Bridge Program to provide opportunities for students to immerse themselves in the campus, where they can develop an understanding of a “college-going culture” and a Parent Bridge Program invites middle school parents to spend a day at our university campus to learn about college preparation and higher education opportunities. Many students and parents who participated in the programs have shown an increase in applying to colleges and thought more about their possibilities. On occasions we would also have parents who stated they were thinking about going back to college or setting up appointments with our mentors to help understand the process of going to a community college.

Through this project I gained an understanding of what it meant to give back to a community, who although was merely a five-minute drive from campus, knew little about what it meant to think about options post-graduation other than going the military. I saw myself in these children. I saw the lack of resources they were given. The lack of guidance or confidence that these children could get into a college. Majority of them thought the way I did when I was their age. The notion that if you do not get into a four-year university right after graduation essentially means you have no future. Schools do not give these children any sense of hope in knowing they can still attend a community college. In my experience, many of them did not know what a community college is or that it is a feasible option to help save money. The stigma of community college in underrepresented communities is not something talked about. The culture that surrounds community college is one of disappoint. I strived in helping these children understand that there is still an option at achieving a higher education. I plan on continuing this message by obtaining my master’s degree. Through art, I believe children can learn in different ways to gain a better insight to who they are as individuals. Programs like these are usually set in place in privileged communities or four-year universities. My goal is to not only bring more programs to underrepresented communities but as well as community colleges. I want to organize a bridge program, similar to the program at Sac State, that helps communities understand that there is help for them out there. Be a person that can be a safe place for these students and their families and show them their life does not end when getting denied college acceptance.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I grew up exploring the streets of Los Angeles and familiarizing myself with the sounds of the city, the intersections of culture, and learning to appreciate the quiet moments. During this time, I seek to find these moments of rest in the landscape and how space is occupied. After engaging with the public sphere I seek to find these intersecting moments of light and darkness, investigating the interplay the shadows have with the environment.

Through photography, I demand the audience to take a look up from their phones, remember the ground we walk on, and who the original caretakers are. My practice is an ofrenda to the land. I seek out to remember the landscape we have lost and also the many ways someone claims something as “theirs”. Whether that be shown in encampments, graffiti, tying shoes on the phone wires, or by simply putting a fence around their property. By layering other images behind or on top of another I set out to bring the landscape back into the conversation and have Her be my subject by creating a portrait of what She has to offer.

My work is an expression of all of these overlays of experience, of moving through the land and reconciling how to work through these experiences of finding my place. By disrupting the images with my hand, cutting, recreating, and remixing, I collaborate with the land to empower my images through perception, experience, and imagination.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
1st I would take them to get some great coffee at Tierra Mia this great spot in my home town in Pico Rivera.

2nd I would hit up grand central market and allow them to explore and try different food spots.

3rd We could hit up Santee alley and be immersed in the environment and check out the vendors

4th I would go to Salsa and Beer in the valley and enjoy some really great food and drinks

5th I would end the week with a trip to the beach and enjoy the sun and relaxation that California has to offer.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The person I would like to should out most is my family and my amazing cohort at Otis College of Art and Design. My family has not only helped me financially achieve this goal in my life but have also been there to listen to my questions, problems or eve n as simple as help me drive around looking for things to photograph. My cohort has helped me understand different concepts and ideas that I didn’t know were there. They have helped me develop as a person and as an artist.

Instagram: jaz.photo18

Image Credits
All images taken by myself but models include: Vita Kari (They/them), Diana, Jessie, and Sandy Kupfer