Griselda Casillas

STORY BY BRIGITTE CELIS +DOLCE CORTES
IMAGES BY GRISELDA CASILLAS

Published on June 3, 2025

“Sometimes in life photography comes and finds us, rather than us finding photography.”

Griselda Casillas, 33, is a street photographer and has been a volunteer at the Bronx Documentary Center for almost three years.

Casillas’ family immigrated from Oaxaca, Mexico to California, and worked as fruit pickers. “It was really rough,” she remembers. “My parents would wake up at three in the morning to get ready, to make their food and my food. They dropped me off and wouldn’t come back until 5 pm.” After six years in California, the family moved to Oregon when Casillas was 9. “I’ve been doing a lot of moving the past few years, but I feel like all of those experiences really help with what I’m doing now.”

She lived in Oregon for 10 years before moving back to Los Angeles at 19. When she moved back to LA, she found a love for community. “There were so many different people.” She connected with the Chicano community and learned a great deal, “We could be anything we wanted as Mexican people, as Chicanos, as first gens. We were all still Mexican, but all different, with different interests.”
That’s where her love for street photography started. Her parents were strict, so she didn’t go out much until she was 18. When she finally did, she began taking pictures with her phon

Casillas wanted to study fashion design after high school but couldn’t afford it. Even with scholarships, the school was too expensive, and her undocumented parents couldn’t co-sign any loans. “That’s one of the reasons I joined the military,” she says, “to try to help legalize my parents.”

She joined the military at 25 and served for four years. It helped her travel, paid for school, and now she’s in her last month at the City College of New York. She always had an interest in art, from painting to photography, and dreamed of working for National Geographic.

In late 2020, after her time in the military, she moved to New York City. “It was a time where I was exploring my independence, because I didn’t live with my parents anymore. I worked hard so that I could have my own apartment, which I’ve had since then.”

When Casillas got to New York, she focused more on her street photography and began researching the art form. She came across the Bronx Documentary Center on social media and started following them. About three years ago, she saw a class they were offering and decided to take it. It was a black and white printing class taught by Brian Young. After the class and the amazing people she met, she decided to come back and volunteer. “I think that really made me want to come back to the BDC,” she says, “just because of the people that I met there.”

Casillas has always found connection wherever she goes. In LA, it was the Chicano community. In the military, it was people from across the world. In New York, it’s photography and the people at the BDC—her way of staying grounded while meeting new people and telling real stories.