Mark Abramson: Neither Here Nor There

As a part of a rotating photography series at New America NYC, we are proud to present the newest exhibit, Mark Abramson’s Neither Here Nor There.

Neither Here Nor There A long-term photography and film documentary series in progress

By way of the California DREAM Act, Blanca, a 19-year old Mexican immigrant from Querétaro, was brought to the United States as a child by her two undocumented parents in 2001. Blanca is part of a new generation of DREAMers, young, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children by their parents. DREAMers have been given an opportunity by the California government to integrate into society by qualifying for in-state tuition and financial aid opportunities within the public university system.

Raised primarily in Bakersfield by her two parents, a gardener and an agricultural worker, Blanca is now attending UC Berkeley in hopes of one day becoming a doctor. While Blanca and her 9 year old United States-born sister are safe from deportation for now, as she qualified for relief from deportation in 2011 due to a presidential executive order known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the future is uncertain for their parents.

While young DREAMers receive their fair share of media attention, their undocumented families and communities are often ignored. With no comprehensive immigration reform in sight yet on a national scale, her parents, along with 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, are left in the shadows waiting for a solution to appear.

It is estimated that every year, 90,000 undocumented immigrants of mixed-status families are deported, fragmenting families and placing youth in emotionally traumatic and vulnerable situations. While there is hope in Blanca’s situation, her family lives under a vulnerable state of existence that could potentially destroy their American dream, their family, and the roots they have planted by settling in the United States.

This intimate look into this issue stems from a previous body of Abramson’s work called “Dream”, a series that documented the youth culture and theater of activism surrounding the push to pass the federal DREAM Act during the heated debate in Washington, D.C in 2010.

Mark Abramson (b. 1988) is a Russian-American photojournalist and cinematographer currently based out of New York City as a freelancer, and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Mark’s work documents the various issues surrounding undocumented communities living in the United States and how they intersect other facets of the immigration debate.

He previously worked with the Washington Post and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a multimedia journalist and photographer. He graduated with a journalism and mass communications degree from George Washington University.