Online Artist Talk:
Mark Tuschman, Together We Rise
Tuesday, October 3, 3:00  4:00pm
Free for members, $10 for non-members
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Sign up and secure your spot below before 6:00pm October 2. Space is limited. We will meet through Zoom and a URL will be sent to those who register the evening before.

Living in an increasingly polarized America, the issue of immigration is currently one of the trigger points dividing Americans. Fearmongering and feelings of alienation and resentment towards immigrants have become more widespread and acceptable. What can we do to begin healing and create bridges of understanding between people of diverse backgrounds? My answer to this question was to embark on a photography project in 2018 to document the vital contributions immigrants bring to our country. People from the world over come here to build a better life, and America, in turn, benefits from their innumerable contributions to our cultural, scientific and economic vitality.

This photo-documentary project, Together We Rise: Immigrants in America, will culminate in a book featuring the extraordinary stories, portraits of diverse immigrants, and the enriching, essential contributions they make to our country.

For Together We Rise, I photographed more than 200 men and women from all over the world. Some came as undocumented immigrants. Some came seeking asylum. Others came as DACA recipients. And others came traditionally, in search of new lives and full citizenship. I met people who work in vineyards and strawberry fields, I met chefs, restaurateurs, doctors, lawyers, judges, and dozens of high-tech creators and innovators. And without exception, each immigrant expressed the desire to contribute fully to our society, and they came here because they deeply admire and respect our democratic values and ideals. As one of our immigrants reminded me so eloquently: “Immigration is the greatest form of flattery.”

Together We Rise is actually organized by how each immigrant adds value to our society- For example, the first and by far the largest section of the book, titled Our Food, Our Land documents immigrants’ contribution to our food chain.

I plan to discuss how I went about creating this body of work, and some of the valuable things I have learned from photographing and interviewing such a diverse group of immigrants. It is my desire to use this book as a tool for advocacy to help promote the rights of immigrants and to create a sense of empathy, compassion, and respect for our fellow human beings.

BIO
Mark Tuschman has worked as an international freelance photographer for over 40 years. As a photographer committed to issues of global health and development and the basic human rights of women and girls, he was privileged to receive several awards, including the photographer of the year award from the Global Health Council in 2009-2010, and, in 2014, the Grand Prize in a worldwide photo competition sponsored by Social Documentary Network and Management Sciences for Health. His work has been featured and exhibited in many international health and development conferences, including: The Pacific Health Summit in London in June 2010, a conference promoting women’s reproductive health care, and in September 2011,The Audacia Forum, a conference on promoting girls’ education in New York. In 2012, his images were used to illustrate the UNFPA 7 Billion Campaign and the WomenDeliver Conference in Malaysia in 2013 and in Copenhagen in 2016, where he was the featured exhibiting photographer. His photography was exhibited at The Carter Center Human Rights Defenders Forum in Atlanta in 2015 featuring work from his award winning book, Faces of Courage: Intimate Portraits of Women on the Edge.

Currently, Mark will be publishing a book, Together We Rise: Immigrants in America, a photo-documentary project featuring extraordinary stories and portraits of diverse immigrants and their essential contributions to our country.
To learn more about Mark and Together We Rise, please visit his website >

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