Cynthia's CD Collection
BY FEATURED ARTIST: Tom Kiefer
Tom Kiefer, Cynthia's CD Collection, Pink, photographic essay, 2017. Courtesy of REDUX Pictures.
CYNTHIA’S CD COLLECTION
THOMAS KIEFER / FEB 2021 / ISSUE 5
A note from the Editor: In 2019, I spent several hours with artist Tom Kiefer in his studio in Ajo, Arizona. Tom’s body of work, “El Sueño Americano / The American Dream” is a photographic documentation of the personal belongings carried by migrants and those seeking asylum that were seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a processing facility near the U.S./Mexico border in southwest Arizona. The following is an excerpt from our conversation.
“From 2003-2014, I worked part-time as a janitor at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in the Sonoran Desert. I mopped the floors, took out the trash, changed light bulbs, did some light groundskeeping, and emptied out the holding cells. My job was to throw out what had been confiscated from people who were detained—toothbrushes, soap, water bottles, rosaries, shoes, blankets, jackets, birth control pills, children’s clothing, even yellow rubber duckies—items the Border Patrol agents deemed ‘non-essential’ or ‘potentially lethal.’ I was directed to throw everything into the dumpsters.
It went against every moral principle of mine to see all of these things being thrown out, just going to waste, so the border patrol agents and I were given permission to take the food to the local food pantry. When I started saving the food, I started collecting the objects. I could easily put small items like toothbrushes and rosaries into the box with the food. As time went on, I started taking things like shoes, jackets and jeans, and I would discreetly place larger items in the bigger boxes with water.
I began cataloguing and photographing the items taken by the Border Patrol. There’s a risk in what these objects represent. There are people who would love to see this project disappear; people who want this to go away. I’m not paranoid, I’m just realistic that these objects need to be safeguarded. I hate to point that out, but it’s become a reality. If I hadn’t collected these items, no one would believe me. This is one of hundreds of stations like this. I hope that it becomes a record of what our government chose to do.
How we treat others is a reflection of who we are; that’s why I try to present these objects in a way that is without judgement, but to do it in a way that’s respectful and has reverence for these objects, taken from people as their dignity is being taken away. There is a person behind every object. This isn’t just about people crossing the desert. These are people who can help the wheels from going off our country. Who are we if we can’t see that?”
Tower of Power’s “So Very Hard to Go” was among the songs found in Cynthia’s CD Collection.
Born in Wichita, Kansas, fine art photographer Tom Kiefer was raised primarily in the Seattle area and worked in Los Angeles as a graphic designer. Kiefer moved to Ajo, Arizona in December 2001 to fully develop and concentrate his efforts in studying and photographing the urban and rural landscape and the cultural infrastructure of the United States. Beginning in July 2003, he started working part-time as a janitor at a nearby U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility. Kiefer resigned in August 2014 to work on photographing and documenting these items full time. Currently, photographs from El Sueño Americano/The American Dream have been featured in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Washington Post, CNN, and other publications.