As has been mentioned before, all of Essaydi’s photographs except one, Les Femmes du Moroc: #23, (as displayed on her website), have a distinctive black border. Part of this black border can be attributed to the use of large format film. However, only a thin black line with smoother edges would appear on a print made from a large format negative without manipulation. The black lines do not always appear on large format photographs; their appearance is dependent upon three factors: whether the photographer crops the image while printing, what kind of negative carrier is being used, and/or if the negative or print is being manipulated. It is this first factor that gives Les Femmes du Moroc #23 its borderless appearance. Whether Essaydi only cropped the thin black edges or cropped some of the imagery is unknown, the lack of any black border and the photographs clean edges indicate that the photograph, Les Femmes du Moroc #23, was printed in a negative carrier that at the very least covered (blocked) the edges of the film while being printed.
The negative carrier is what holds the film negative and is placed in the enlarger to make a print. The negative carrier is a metal folder of sorts with a rectangular hole cut out of each plane, so that when the piece of film is placed in the carrier the carrier becomes a framing device to hold the negative but not block any of the image. Negative carriers may differ in how close the metal edge comes to the edge of the image on the negative. If part of the film is uncovered, that does not have an image on it, it will appear black on the print. Some photographers make and manipulate negative carriers to achieve a specific appearance, for example making the black border more prominent or manipulating the edges of the image.
“I started not only keeping the black border, but also creating it. If you use just the normal frame of black, you would have straight black lines. I go great lengths to make it look like a Polaroid by taking tape and removing treads from it. Everything is done in the darkroom,” explains Essaydi about her photographs.[1] The Polaroid that Essaydi is referring to is not the vernacular polaroid with the white plastic frame. It is the large format Polaroid used by and marketed to fine art photographers that she refers to. These 20 x 24 inch Polaroids characteristically have dark borders that are irregular in form from one image to the next but provide the imagery with a dark black and at times brown, or even other colors if it is color film, border. These irregular borders are created by the chemicals used in the film that make the photographs instant, or close to instant, when the film is pressed together to activate the chemicals. This border or frame is an aesthetic trait of the Polaroid and visually points to the look and qualities of a Polaroid
Essaydi explains her aim in creating this Polaroid look in her own photographs, “As for the framing, first of all, I love Polaroids. That’s the first time I tried to work in Polaroids. I have a few images but it’s very hard to work in large-format.”[2] Though the black borders in Essaydi’s work are not exact replicas of Polaroids they do bring to mind the aesthetic of the large format Polaroid. Essaydi’s other explanation of the black border, “Another thing that is very important for me is that, because we usually don’t frame my work – it is mounted – the black frame then becomes the frame of the photographs.”[3]
Through the use and appropriation of multiple photographic processes Essaydi is able to provide her photographs with the aesthetic and technical characteristics that she believes fit her work. It is these processes and characteristics of the photographic medium that give Essaydi’s work the visual documentation and appearance it has, while also allowing the photographer to present her work as she has chosen. Far too often a medium is used because it is what the artist is familiar with, instead of giving the work a process that fits the aim of the art and its concept. Through the use of large format photography, historically linked to documentary photography and travel photography, Essaydi not only incorporates the characteristics of the process but also the similarities of its history to painting and its representation, and depictive quality, that provided a large number of people with their only visual reference to other cultures, places and people. Essaydi’s aesthetic and technical choices have given her artwork a more enhanced existence, creating layers of meaning.