PARENTS: Refugees Meet "New Neighbors"
Anna and Jordan Rathkopf/Rathkopf.com
Photographer and videographer with focus on health, identity and community
based in Brooklyn
Our personal portrait project working with "New Neighbors Partnership" was featured in Parents Magazine in January 2022.
It all started with a picture. A picture that used to hang in my grandparents' living room in Prague. Now, this picture hangs in our living room in Brooklyn. All Americans came here with something from somewhere. We are all immigrants, some of us fresher, and some of us settled, but we all have something that came from the old or not-so-old country.We wanted to portray people and the items that remind them of their roots. And what is homier than a bedsheet that we all put on our beds where we dream. That is how we came up with our project "things we brought over."
We connected with Shoshana, the founder of New Neighbors Partnership, a nonprofit connecting settled American families with newly arrived refugee families. We were lucky Shoshana also wanted to organize a shoot to show her work’s focus on community and empathy.Shohana was the first to agree to participate. She brought her aunt's embroidery which she keeps on her work desk. Her aunt was a former ESL teacher for newly arrived immigrants and spent much of her time creating connections with refugees in her community. One family showed photos of their grandparents who came with nothing.
We photographed a real princess and her headdress. We photographed a family whose item was the father that came to the US a week before. And we captured the genuine friendships that have developed between the families that were giving and families that we receiving.
We all came from somewhere and brought over something important and unique to us and our roots.
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It all started with a picture. A picture that used to hang in my grandparents' living room in Prague. Now, this picture hangs in our living room in Brooklyn. All Americans came here with something from somewhere. We are all immigrants, some of us fresher, and some of us settled, but we all have something that came from the old or not-so-old country.We wanted to portray people and the items that remind them of their roots. And what is homier than a bedsheet that we all put on our beds where we dream. That is how we came up with our project "things we brought over."
We connected with Shoshana, the founder of New Neighbors Partnership, a nonprofit connecting settled American families with newly arrived refugee families. We were lucky Shoshana also wanted to organize a shoot to show her work’s focus on community and empathy.Shohana was the first to agree to participate. She brought her aunt's embroidery which she keeps on her work desk. Her aunt was a former ESL teacher for newly arrived immigrants and spent much of her time creating connections with refugees in her community. One family showed photos of their grandparents who came with nothing.
We photographed a real princess and her headdress. We photographed a family whose item was the father that came to the US a week before. And we captured the genuine friendships that have developed between the families that were giving and families that we receiving.
We all came from somewhere and brought over something important and unique to us and our roots.
VIEW ARTICLE
New Neighbors - Ukraininian family home visit
Public Story
PARENTS: Refugees Meet "New Neighbors"
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