“The photographs in this exhibit invite us to get to know our immigrant neighbors and our own immigrant past,” Hing said in his statement on the immigrant experience and the anti-immigration movement.
“The anti-immigrant movement in the United States is as strong as ever. Immigrant bashing is popular among politicians, talk radio hosts, private militiamen, and xenophobic grassroots organizations,” he said. “Their common thread is the rhetoric of fear. The age of hysteria over immigration in which we live leads to tragic policies that challenge us as a moral society.”
The photo exhibit “Those Among Us,” curated by Saiko Matsumaru, showcases work by Peter Kupfer. Kupfer captures a broad range of immigrant experiences in his photographs. In the piece “Chinatown,” a senior man stands on the side of a busy street in San Francisco's Chinatown. “On the Stoop” features a woman and three small children sitting on a step.
“When I meet and speak with immigrants—documented and undocumented—I find decent, hard-working folks who have traveled to join relatives or to work, or, in the case of refugees, fled here seeking freedom,” Hing said. “If we were in their shoes—in fact, many of our parents or grandparents were in their shoes—I am confident that we would want to be treated with simple, human respect.”