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Billy Delfs

Photographer
  
The Refugee Response
Public Project
The Refugee Response
Copyright Billy Delfs 2024
Date of Work Jul 2017 - Aug 2018
Updated Jul 2019
Location Cleveland, Ohio
Topics Advertising, Agriculture, Black and White, Documentary, Editorial, Environment, Lifestyle, Photography, Portraiture
An ongoing story documenting this organizations effort to help refugees adjust to life in North Eastern Ohio with guidance from The Refugee Response. Each year 1300 - 1900 refugees settle in Ohio from places like Burma, Bhutan, Somalia, Ukraine, Russia and Iraq. These are portraits of those who work the Ohio City Farm. Going about the documentation as I was hired to do, I focused of those who tend the farm at first. It wasn't until half way through documenting some of other aspects of what TRR does when I returned to the farm and made this portrait series. I was looking for a simple and concrete way to show what each refugee and the (REAP) Refugee Empowerment Agricultural Program produces in a small set of images. 

More about TRR: They all come from a place where farming is a way of life, un-natural to us in america these days with larger farming and less and less smaller farms. Their attention to the crops and the quality of the produce feeds families here now, because of (REAP) and gives them purpose here that is familiar to them. The USDA has even recently recognized this farm, the Ohio City Farm, because of each of those photographed and TRR, as a National model for urban farming in 2015.

In addition to the farm, The Refugee Response has programs in place to intigrate them into life in america with tutoring, outreach, and community events. You will see some of these aspects in the images of the out reach section in my dashboard. For more you can visit thier website http://therefugeeresponse.org and I encourage further information through them as I have only limited detailed insight. As a photographer, I only know so much when going in and without thier guidance and support, none of these images would have been possible. The portrait series is my way of interpetting what I was witnessing.

All names of each person will be provided at your request. 
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