State Of Exception

A traveling exhibition at The New School documents the detritus of immigration from Central America.

Imagine leaving home with the clothes on your back and only what you can carry.

Few of the backpacks look as if they were manufactured in the immigrant's country of origin.

Immigrants abandoned most of the items in the exhibition, including the contents of one man's pockets.

It's hard not to think of ordinary materials from concentration camps displayed by Holocaust museums.

Sonoran desert crossings require carrying your own water in addition to your belongings for great distances.  Immigrants took these photos.

A cynical thirst entrepreneur misspelled the name of a mountain range at a common crossing point on a water bottle label.

Did I mention that most of the men, women and children who left behind these belongings died as a result of US policy PRIOR to the election of our current President?

Perversely, his ridiculous wall, even if it's never built, may save lives by discouraging people from trying to cross the desert.  Or maybe not.  Desperation probably trumps common sense.