The Immigrants is an exhibition of historic photographs of the immigrant experience by more than 40 acclaimed photographers at Howard Greenberg Gallery in Midtown East, Manhattan from December 14, 2017 – January 27, 2018.
The exhibition includes work about the journey and the work of immigrants by over 40 photographers from the 1860s through 2015. There is Jacob Riis (1849 – 1914) whose documentary of the Lower East Side, How the Other Half Lives, stirred social change in New York City and the United States.
There is work by Dorothea Lange, the Depression-era photographer who took pictures of people who were basically immigrants in their own country.
There are many pictures of Ellis Island, the old immigrant gateway to America. There is work about the Spanish Civil War by David “Chim” Seymour and Robert Capa.
There are haunting photos of Jews trying to escape the war in Europe by sailing to America. Some of those who were not let into the country had to return to Europe and died in the concentration camps. There are photos about our own Japanese – American World War II concentration camps.
More than 70 images include works by Mexican photographer, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, the father of Latin American photography and Dulce Pinzón a Mexican New Yorker in Brooklyn. There are also photos of old Mexico by Leon Levinstein.
There are some lovely Bruce Davidson photos of our city in the 1980s. It’s the New York of dreams.
Then there are contemporary photos of migrants crossing into Greece and in-country immigration in China.
Many of the subjects show that facial expression of numb fear and foreboding. If you are an immigrant or the child of immigrants, you can’t help but see a little of yourself in this exhibition. Someone in the family has gone through what the people in the photographs are going through. If only people cared then. If only people cared now.
There is an opening reception on Thursday, December 14 from 6 – 8 pm.
A portion of exhibition proceeds benefits the International Rescue Committee (IRC). For more information, visit www.rescue.org
For more information about the exhibition, visit www.howardgreenberg.com/exhibitions/the-immigrants