Ohio University alumna captures family life during pandemic

In March of 2020 when the world seemed to stop, Andrea Cipriani Mecchi kept her passion alive through her Family at a Distance Project.

Family at a Distance was aimed to document many different types of families during a time of isolation, confusion, and uncertainty. Among the various family structures photographed included LGBTQ households, single mother families, minority communities, as well as a broad range of socioeconomic levels. The project was based out of Philadelphia, a city generally full of life that had Mecchi said became a ghost town overnight.

The project was conceived on the second day of the stay-at-home order in March 2020 and has gained national attention. The project has been featured in the Philadelphia Magazine as well as the NYU School of Journalism.

Mecchi earned her degree from Ohio University in 1993 and has been a proud alumnus ever since. Over the past 25 years she has worked as a commercial photographer documenting a wide variety of projects while traveling the world, meeting new people, and raising her two daughters. Mecchi has worked with the New York Times, The Washington Post Magazine, People Magazine, as well as many other outlets to create an impressive career in the photography world.

Mecchi reflected on her time at Ohio University and how it inspired her to pursue photography.

“Ohio University provided me with the ability to develop myself as a photographer. The classroom was always a safe and encouraging environment where I was able to take chances and find my voice,” she said. “I loved my time spent in the darkroom and in the ceramics studio. However, spring quarter was my favorite time of the year. I am super sentimental over my springtime memories in Athens. I loved jumping in a car to go out to Stroud’s Run or visiting the small towns on the foothills with fellow photo majors shooting portraits of the people I would meet.”

“My goal when approaching my subjects was to just be present. I certainly interacted with each family, however, I let them lead,” she said. “If a family was playful, I went with it. If a family was initially distant or melancholy, I went with that too. My goal was to document how everyone was coping during this strange time of being stuck at home in order to capture an authentic moment, as opposed to trying to project myself into those moments.”

Mecchi’s Family at a Distance project mimics documentary photos of the past. Mecchi took style inspiration from work done by the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression era, as well as documentary photographer Martha Burke White. The black-and-white tone taken in Mecchi’s photos allows for viewers to connect deeper with the families she had in front of her camera.

“This pandemic is the first time I am a viewer as well as a participant in what will prove to be a moment of time that forever changed who we are,” Mecchi said. “In the beginning we were paralyzed and at a complete standstill. We were anxious about the uncertainty of the situation. Now as we begin to start moving through life again, we need to be cautious. Most of us are still staying home. Working, learning, struggling to balance this new world. We are not sure if we will ever go back to ‘normal’ and we are finally starting to grasp that fact. At some point I think all of us will be able to look back and be grateful for the pause in our busy lives and remember the moments we spent as families.”

Mecchi’s work reminds us to search for inspiration in unconventional places, find joy where we can, and hold our families tight as we work together to create a new sense of normalcy in our daily lives.