I began this project, Promised Land, in December of 2020, when contractors across the border states were racing to build the border wall. I wanted to find out who the United States was trying to keep out, and why. I began volunteering in migrant respite centers in both the United States and Mexico. I began volunteering with groups who search for missing migrants, groups who leave water in the desert. I wanted to know how US policies were affecting human lives on both sides of the border. Volunteering with organizations who give humanitarian aid, for me, is an important facet in creating this work, to be able to further educate myself in the realities migrants face on both sides of the border, to be able to convey this story more responsibly.
My 8x10 format camera, built in the 1930s, is as necessary to my process as is my access to extended periods of immersion. The qualities that make the camera slow to work are exactly why: it requires a collaboration between the image’s subject and myself. If I am creating a portrait, the person in front of my lens must be comfortable; I spend time with each person, engaging in conversation, hearing their stories. If I am making a landscape, I must wait in that place for the light.
My father recently found a newspaper photograph on eBay of his father, taken on the day my family was granted asylum to the United States in January of 1969. The importance of this photograph resonated through my family, a document of our own migratory history. Therefore, I give each family a copy of the photographs I make, a document of their journey.
