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Virtual Studio Visit with Tom Kiefer
October 4, 2020 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Join us as we take advantage of this time of social distance to showcase and virtually visit photographers all over our state!
Tom Kiefer is a photographer based in Ajo Arizona. His current project, El Sueno Americano (The American Dream) assembles and documents the seized belongings of people taken into custody by the US Border Patrol. Tom’s photographs are a haunting meditation on immigration, a subject that is all but invisible otherwise.
We will see some of the thousands of objects that Tom has collected, and hear from Tom about how they were acquired and how he integrates them into his artwork. The project has been featured in news publications nationally and abroad, launched as a major exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles in 2019, and is now traveling through 2024.
This event is free, and limited to 30 Arizona Photography Alliance Members.
Presentation will be held on Zoom, link provided 24 hours prior to event.
Not an AZPA member yet, but want to attend? Check out the options here.
About the Artist
Born in Wichita, Kansas, fine art photographer Tom Kiefer was raised primarily in the Seattle area and worked in Los Angeles as a graphic designer. Kiefer moved to Ajo, Arizona in December 2001 to fully develop and concentrate his efforts in studying and photographing the urban and rural landscape and the cultural infrastructure of the United States.
In July 2003, he started working part-time as a janitor at a nearby Customs and Border Protection station where he found personal belongings seized and discarded by officials.
The migrants’ belongings, necessary for hygiene, comfort, and survival, were deemed “non-essential” or “potentially lethal.” Kiefer commemorates the untold stories these objects embody in photographs akin to portraits, preserving traces of human journeys cut short.
In 2015, Kiefer was included in LensCulture’s top 50 emerging photographers and Photolucida’s top 50 Critical Mass. His ongoing project, El Sueño Americano / The American Dream has been featured in news publications nationally and abroad. A major exhibition of El Sueño Americano / The American Dream was launched in 2019 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles and is now traveling through 2024.
All images from El Sueño Americano © Tom Kiefer