WE ARE HUMAN / SOMOS HUMANOS
A Decade of Demonstrations from 2010 - 2019
José Torres-Tama
Images of Public Protests & Photo Assemblages
PhotoNOLA 2020
Virtual Exhibition Dec 9, 2020 - March 21, 2021
Zoom Live Artist's Talk:
Thursday, March 4, 2021, 7pm (CST)m
Zoom Link Here
Zoom Live Artist's Talk:
Thursday, March 11, 2021, 7pm (CST)
Zoom Link Here
Zoom Live Artist's Talk:
Thursday, March 18, 2021, 7pm (CST)
Zoom Link Here
This series is being developed for a 2021 book titled
Hard Living in the Big Easy:
Immigrants & Photography of Post-Katrina Protests 2010 - 2019
with a 2020 Documentary Award Grant from the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation
with
WE ARE HUMAN / SOMOS HUMANOS
From 2010 to 2019, multidisciplinary award-winning artist José Torres-Tama photographed the many public protests of the Congress of Day Laborers / El Congreso de Jornaleros, and this virtual exhibition of 20 striking images from this decade-long documentation project chronicles the Latin American reconstruction workers who have aided the rebirth of New Orleans in the 15 years post-Katrina. Immigrant workers have given their blood, labor, and love to the resurrection of this port city, and this photo documentation series captures their "live art" street protests and collective acts of civil disobedience to rampant human rights violations, wage theft by ruthless contractors, and brutal deportations by local ICE Agents.
The 2018 Tricentennial celebrations and the official anthology published by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) titled New Orleans & the World 1718 - 2018 disappeared Latin American immigrants from local history. It's tragic to bear witness to a state arts agency abuse their entrusted power and disappear immigrant people from our city's history--with unquestioned power to decide who shall be remembered and who shall be forgotten. Additionally, it's deeply traumatic to see how easily privileged scholars can exclude and erase us from their post-Katrina narratives in a celebrated publication, which not one media outlet addressed for its obvious egregious omission. This series is a photographic exhibition of creative resistance to challenge this cultural deportation of some of the most valuable contributors to the reconstruction of the Big Easy. --José Torres-Tama
Some images are developed into mixed media assemblages or Photo Retablos created from re-purposed wooden drawers found on the streets after the storm. The artist has created mini altars with these photo assemblages to honor the valiant and heroic work of the Congress of Day Laborers and their children, who are bearing witness to the persecution of their parents.
A moving second-hand clock is placed at various points of each photo image, representing the beating heart of immigrants working in the shadows. Latin American immigrants in New Orleans face a clear and present danger of brutal deportations with a hostile White House administration pimping fear and anti-immigrant hysteria.
Jose Torres-Tama, photographer and performance artist, will offer a Zoom Artist's Talk about the photo series at 8pm for each night of Saturday, February 20 & 27, 2021. On March 6, 2021, it will be at 7pm, and each Zoom event will include a mini-performance tribute to the Latin American immigrant community and Congress of Day Laborers that are the inspiration of this ten-year photo documentation project.
Click on the Zoom Links Above for Each Date.
