Refugees and immigrants from the Capital Region have participated in a unique project, unseenamerica NYS, to tell the stories of their lives in pictures, and in poems. They are part of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) Albany Field office. This year, about seven times as many refuges are expected to arrive in the Capital Region than in 2005, coming from over l6 countries.  Together with the Workforce Development Institute (WDI), these refugees and immigrants learned to take photos and write poems, as a way of telling their stories.  This project, conceived by Bread and Roses Cultural Project 1199 in 2000, has taken place with hundreds of groups around the country.

Pictures of Working Life Taken by Working Hands
On Display through August 31, 2008 Niagara Falls Public Library
1425 Main Street, 2nd Floor
Niagara Falls, NY

This exciting exhibit of black & white photographs brings together stories of a Brazilian veterinarian, union crane operator, career counselor at Every Woman Opportunity Center, nurse’s aide, Jane-of-all-trades, furniture refinisher, grandmother, hair stylist, student, and more. 

Graphic Work: Imaging Today’s Labor Movement
A beautiful beginning to a new wave of labor art. Read More >>

unseenamerica NYS is underwritten by the Workforce Development Institute (WDI).  This project is a collaboration of WDI, the NYS AFL-CIO, Bread and Roses Cultural Project of 1199 SEIU. For more information contact Erin Shannon at 518.272.3500 or eshannon@wdiny.org.  www.wdiny.org or www.bread-and-roses.com

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera."  - Dorothea Lange

unseenamerica NYS is an innovative arts project dedicated to increasing worker visibility through the use of photography.

In 12-week workshops, workers are provided with cameras and taught basic principles of documentary photography and creative writing in order to explore and express their daily lives. unseenamerica teaches photography as a medium that can be used to increase worker visibility and dignity. We do this with the understanding that being seen is often the first step to being heard. This process of self actualization is an important step in encouraging community, political, and union activism for participants.

unseenamerica is an exercise in democracy, built upon a long history of artistic photographic documentation including artists such as Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, and Walker Evans. Their pictures presented an overview of America in the early 20th Century; transforming the consciousness of society by making those normally overlooked the subject of their art. From children working in coal mines to the bread lines of the Great Depression, these pictures captured the lives of ordinary Americans and helped tell their stories.

unseenamerica provides this overview for the 21st Century. Through the images and words of the workers themselves, the unseenamerica project will make those who are currently “invisible,” visible to our larger culture and in so doing will bring us all a step closer to achieving the promise of the American Dream.

For more information, including a workshop schedule contact Erin Shannon, Coordinator for Cultural Programs at 518-272-3500 extension 119 or via email at eshannon@wdiny.org.

 unseenamerica NYS is a collaboration of the Bread & Roses Cultural Project of 1199SEIU, the NYS AFL-CIO, and the Workforce Development Institute.  UNSEENAMERICA -Photos and Stories by Workers, edited by Esther Cohen and published by Harper-Collins, can be found at the 1199SEIU web site: http://bread-and-roses.com/