For my final project for my Integrated Seminar & Studio: Fashion class, I wrote a research paper about how the concept of race negatively affects immigrants living in America. I addressed the complex racial identity issues faced by new Americans with a multimedia art project consisting of six sets of photos of immigrant adolescents who are either first or second generation immigrants. Although they are constantly homogenized, people of various races are not all the same. They have a broad range of interests and religious, political and socioeconomic backgrounds. I supported this idea with my photographs of people that showcase their unique identities and individual ways of outward expression. 

My project features text and images printed on transparency sheets. The sheets are layered in front of each other and presented in a manner that allows each layer to be pushed aside. The first layer consists of text. The source of this text is the interview that I have had with each of the individuals featured in my photos. In my interviews, I asked each person “What does it mean to come to America and how does it affect the way you present yourself?” I had originally planned for the responses to appear on diptychs displaying images of the people dressed in outfits representing them in their “homeland” and America, but I found that format to be too superficial.

I believe that the layered presentation shows the depth of my research and the reasons for my creation of this photo project. The layer behind the first text layer is a photograph of the individual in their “America” outfit and the layer behind that is a second text layer covered in offensive words and phrases that have been used against them regarding their ethnicity. This layer addresses the ways that they are perceived as “other.” Behind that second text layer is a photograph of the individual in their “homeland” outfit. The last layer is a photograph of the individual with their torso exposed. I only show their head and shoulders so that they appear to be naked. Behind the words and the clothes is a person with real feelings. Despite all of the things said about the them and regardless of the way that they look, they're human.