Given these strange times we’re living in, the project El Sueño Americano (The American Dream) of photographer Tom Kiefer hits close to home for a lot of us. While working as a part-time janitor at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection station, Kiefer started to collect personal items found in the trash, seized from migrants caught illegally trying to enter the country through the Arizona border. Between 2007 and 2014, Kiefer had accumulated a staggering amount of discarded objects, which he assembled and photographed against a plain backdrop.
It’s an eye-opening look at how items considered indispensable by migrants for traversing the desert —water bottles, rosaries, pocket Bibles, shoelaces, soap bars, toilet paper rolls, extra clothes — are deemed “non-essential” and “potentially lethal” by the border police patrol. Underneath the vibrant colors of the photographs lie dark undertones of the items’ history; they have become cruel reminders of failed journeys.
“My intent is the explore the humanity of migrants who risk their lives crossing through the desert and to create a personal connection for the viewer to a migrant and their hope for a better life,” explains Kiefer, who has since quit his janitorial job and is focusing full time on El Sueño Americano. Visit his website here.
