Can You Spot the Future Americans?

A mosaic of immigrant ID photos.


[Click here to read a related Mother Jones article about stressed-out immigration judges.]

Photographer Matt Slaby has snapped more than 100 passport-style pics to accompany US citizenship applications. Writes Slaby of the passport picture-taking process:

You know before you even touch the shutter that they’re going to hate the picture. All the tricks that photographers use to make a photograph flattering are pulled out from under you by the procedures set forth by the United States Department of State ‘Composition Checklist’ for making what they call a “successful photo.” No hats, no glasses, no outrageous jewelry, neutral expression, flat light—it all culminates in a photograph that is hard to be proud of and even harder to hand to someone without apologizing.

The faces shown here are those of immigrants attending citizenship drives—administrative workshops where hopeful Americans-to-be can discuss bureaucratic details with lawyers and specialists. Displayed in composite form, what emerges is the face of immigration in the early 21st century.

Photographer Matt Slaby:

In passport photos, people keep their distinct personalities in spite of all efforts to strip them down to basic appearance. If you look carefully, you’ll find all kinds of clues about a person, beyond the hat they’re not wearing or the smile that they’re trying to suppress.

Depending on how fast the line is moving, I get to talk to some people at the citizenship drive beyond the mechanics of taking pictures. But the truth is that being part of a system designed to accommodate a lot of people at once makes for a very mechanical day. Even if you have a great conversation, as a photographer the odds are stacked against you. These photographs don’t exactly present people’s best faces; they’re designed to be mug shots of a less serious sort.

Citizenship drive photography work is something that rarely leaves me with much money beyond the actual expenses of shooting and printing the images on-site. It’s essentially a break-even proposition.

Shooting these pics at cost is really a way for me to use a skill that I have to do direct work that helps people out in very small ways. The passport picture I take isn’t going to assure anyone that their citizenship application will be approved, but it’s something I can contribute.

I got into shooting these photographs by accident. In law school I worked on a few projects related to workers’ rights and wage-and-hour work, stuff that put me in close contact with bigger issues related to immigrants and immigration. In Colorado, it’s hard to look at questions about labor and wage practices without also looking at issues endemic to a troubled immigration system.

I believe that people have the capacity to do small things inside of their immediate sphere of influence and that those small things, in critical mass, are how we move forward as human beings.

 

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“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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