“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
– Emma Lazarus, Statue of Liberty.
The City of New York is a melting pot where culture, language and diaspora come together to create a towering monument to diversity. Each of its five boroughs has its unique characteristics and neighborhood culture, lent to them by their inhabitants. But how much does the city know its dwellers? With life as fast-paced as is shown in pop-culture depictions of the city, is there time to pause and learn why these people migrated, building NYC a multicultural paradise?
The project “Letters from the neighborhoods” tells very personal stories of those immigrants who migrated to NYC after facing extreme human rights violations back in their homelands. Each portrait in this series comes with an open letter written by them in their native language —a personal anecdote, the story of their journey or advice to others.
Moreover, while making an inclusion through photography, the process allows them to cherish the freedom of expression.