Tom Kiefer
“How we treat others is a reflection of who we are.”
- Tom Kiefer
Tom Kiefer is an American photographer based in Ajo, Arizona. Between 2003 and 2014 he worked as a custodian for the United States Customs and Border Patrol. The two works in the Escalette Collection belong to a series entitled El Sueño Americano (The American Dream,) an ongoing body of work that emerged from from his experiences. El Sueno Americano is a photographic essay of the discarded personal effects and belongings of migrants and smugglers apprehended by Border Patrol agents, discarded while being processed at a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility near the U.S./Mexico border in southern Arizona. Kiefer states that his intent is to explore the humanity of the 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.The tightly-photographed, evenly-lit artifacts—make-up, bibles, toothpaste, baby food, toys, soap, water bottles, soap and shoes—attest both to pain and to a sense of possibility.
