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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}After spending 17 years of my career abroad, photographing immigration issues in America seemed like a natural fit for me when I moved back to the United States. In 2009, I began photographing undocumented workers in the fields of Colorado and the deserts of Arizona as well as eportation flights to Central America. This year, I’ve covered several naturalization ceremonies, Âlike when I flew to Tampa, Fla., on Valentine’s Day to photograph 28 married couples who received their citizenship at a special lovers’ day event.
But this week’s photo shoot, with some of the country’s youngest and newest citizens, was even more special.
A total of 300 children, all born abroad, as young as age 4 and others in their late teens â€" even a 41-year-old “kid†(below) â€" came to collect their citizenship certificates at the Federal Building in Downtown Manhattan. All of them were children of naturalized citizens â€" their parents had moved to the United States legally, went through the lengthy naturalization process, then brought their children over.
John Moore/Gett! y Images Otis Hemmings, 41, born in Jamaica, said he was brought to the United States by his parents when he was 7, but only applied decades later for his United States citizenship papers.During my Valentine’s Day shoot, the fluorescent lights had made the recitation of the national anthem and Pledge of Allegiance a little less romantic than it could have been. (And I was just barely able to transmit
and make my flight back to New York City in time for a Valentine’s dinner â€" thankfully without harsh lighting.)
With the children’s event this week, I took a different approach from my normal editorial style and went with lighted portraits. Having spent much of my career in conflict zones overseas, my experience shooting studio style portraiture of children is, let’s say, limited. That said, I have two young daughters, so speaking with children and making them feel comfortable â€" quickly â€" now comes naturally.
To help organize the shot, officials with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services approached families in the waiting room and brought them to a makeshift studio â€" a cabled strobe with umbrella softbox, a spot on the floor marked for the children to stand, and a black muslin cloth, which was gaffer-taped to the wall.
John Moore/Getty Images Darianny Martinez immigrated with her parents from the Dominican Republic.I hoped the simple setup gave more weight to the subjects â€" Âall of them adorable â€" from a spread of cultures and backgrounds as big as our world. A family from Yemen brought their children over in 2010, just as the country was swept up in the violence of the Arab Spring. I photographed their daughter, Layla (with her brother in Slide 14), age 11, both wea! ring her ! head scarf and without it (Slide 19), which was her preference.
The difference was striking.
An 18-year-old from Nigeria, Bushra (Slide 13), raised her hand as though for the Pledge of Allegiance, which she would make a few minutes later during her citizenship ceremony. She looked ready to start a modeling career.
An excited 5-year-old proudly held up two American flags for his portrait (below), but a few frames later gave me a more nuanced look, as a warm puddle spread out from his dress shoes.
The oldest “kid†of the group, Otis Hemmings, 41, his chin stubbled with gray, finally received his citizenship certificate, decades after his parents brought him over from Jamaica Âat age 7.
Key to the individual photos were the captions. My assistant for the shoot, Melinda Anderson, carefully asked each family not only for nationalities, names and ages, but also what jobs the parents found here and which borough of New York City they live in. This city, after all, has more interntional diversity than any place in the country.
With immigration, much of my work has focused â€" and will continue to in the near future â€" on the tough parts of the story: federal agents chasing thirsty immigrants through the desert, detention centers full of immigrants held on their way to deportation, often penniless, to their home countries. But still, as we often hear, America is a country of immigrants. It would appear that with immigration overhaul by the government at last a possibility, this story will be in front of us for some time. Once in a while we find the joyous part of any tough story, and this shoot of young and new Americans was just that.
John Moore/Getty Images Ifeozuwa Oyaniyi, 5, born in Nigeria.John Moore is an award-winning photographer for Getty Images. Some of his work has been featured on Lens before.
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