In the late 1970s, photojournalist Ken Light began documenting agricultural workers across the United States. “The more I travelled, the more I began to see undocumented workers,” he says of the project, which would eventually become With These Hands (Pilgrim Press, 1986). “Many were living in the fields for fear of being apprehended.”
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“At the time, a lot of newspapers in California were writing stories about the ‘Brown Invasion’ because the immigration numbers were incredible. I realised this is one of the great stories of the 20th century, one that would change the demographics of America.”
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Between 1983-1987, Light travelled alongside US Border Patrol over three to four days from 4 pm to 7 am as they combed the Otay Mesa searching formigrants making their way into the country. His gripping photographs have been gathered in the new book, Midnight La Frontera (TBW Books).
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While most photographers would shoot at dusk then leave before night fell, Light chose to shoot the border at night. Working under pitch-black conditions, he preset his Hasselblad camera to focus in the immediate foreground, the only illumination made the moment his flash went off.
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