Photos of immigrants from the early 1900s in present day New York City

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/01/photos-of-immigrants-from-the.html

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These are lovely! Thanks for sharing.

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OMG! That third photo is my grandfather!

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY COUNTRY YOU FOREIGNER!

MAGA!!!

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The true anachronism in the first picture is the pay phone.

I appreciate these, and some are quite striking, but I must say:

There’s nothing like crafting an artistic statement against xenophobia by exclusively using images of Europeans/Caucasians.

I suggest a variation of this project, but with the indigenous Lenape people rather than white Americans’ great-great-grandparents. Or perhaps the West African people forcibly taken to New York and sold into slavery. Or maybe someone should insert into pics of early 1900’s NYC some photos of the orders-of-magnitude-more-diverse immigrant population residing in that city today.

Also, that guy in the phone booth in the first picture is clearly Salman Rushdie.

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Yes, surely the artist could have selected images of the Lenape from the Smithsonian’s extensive collection of 17th and 18th century photography.

There are Lenpe alive today. And they have had their photographs taken. There’s a common problem where some people act as if indigenous Americans only existed in the past.

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