Labor notes:

‘Unseen America’ is labor’s life through a lens

Most immigrant day laborers are used to getting handed a shovel, a mop, a broom or a bucket. But some are now being handed a camera.

The idea is for them to document their own working lives. SUNY Stony Brook is playing a large role in making sure that this national photography project, “Unseen America,” is seen. And believed. And felt.

The project is sponsored in part by the AFL-CIO and The Workplace Project, an organization that advocates for low- and no-wage immigrant workers to find better living and working conditions. On Long Island, “Unseen America” was given a boost from a group of UUP members at Stony Brook who helped in coordinating the program, setting up exhibits and teaching a group of Latino workers about how to use a camera and explore the marvels of a darkroom.

“Essentially, we taught them how to document their lives with inexpensive cameras,” said James Cassidy, a UUPer and part-time Stony Brook instructor who teaches photo technology and printmaking techniques.

The workers were given $40 single lens reflex cameras and sent out into their own lives, armed with film and a vision. One night a week they met with Cassidy, who taught them how to frame a photograph and develop film and prints.

“Even though they worked a full day as laborers, they’d be here to develop,” Cassidy said. “They worked very hard.”

The fruits of their labor are now displayed in a gallery in the Latin American Caribbean Studies (LACS) department at Stony Brook, where the groupings of black and white photographs will hang until college breaks for winter recess. On opening night, more than 75 people showed up to witness the vision and to eat Latino food.

“The images represent a social phenomenon that we see around us … the new Latino immigrant,” said UUPer Paul Gootenberg, a professor of history and director of the LACS program. The content demonstrates the social conflicts emerging on Long Island, he said, including immigrant rights, civil rights and social rights. In one photograph, a group of Latinos joins a workers’ rights rally. One carries a sign that says “Stop Employee Abuse.” In another, a man carries a sign that says “Stop the Hate.”

A quote from state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer espouses the rights of workers to legal protection, and sends out a plea to “... act now to reduce the atmosphere of hate, fear and intimidation that is permeating certain communities.”

For many people, that fear of certain communities comes from the unknown. The exhibit delivers the aperture of knowledge.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is bring ‘class’ into focus,” said Michael Zweig, a UUP member and a professor of economics. Zweig is founder of a group called Study of Working Class Life, an interdisciplinary group of about 35 faculty and staff interested in issues of class. “It’s important to recognize the absolute reality and centrality of class.”

America’s working past was documented by photographers who roamed the country shooting pictures of steelworkers, construction workers and Depression-era workers. The AFL-CIO, through its artistic arm, Bread and Roses, created the “Unseen America” project as a means to allow workers to document themselves.

“This is so we could get the workers themselves to speak to us with their eyes ... to tell us something about who they are as human beings,” Zweig said.

Marcia Wiener, a UUPer and student activities assistant director, made space in the student union for part of the exhibit. She said the response from people has been: “Let’s learn more; let’s see more.”

Across the country, the “Unseen America” exhibitions vary according to who is looking through the lens. One New York City photo project is about Chinese factory workers. Another portrays Latino maintenance and hotel workers; still another, immigrant nannies.

Not all the photos depict conflict; in fact, most show everyday life: smiles, dancing, sharing meals.

Photographer and laborer Rodolfo Sorto, a native of El Salvador, told the people gathered for the opening night reception: “Thank you for helping us discover we have art within us. Since I started my first day of class, I’ve changed a great deal.”

Later, he said he wants to be a professional photographer. He looked around the room. “It’s my beginning,” he said.

— Liza Frenette