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Jill Enfield's New American Project by Jennifer Huh The New American Project captures the portraits of today's immigrants using a photo technique from the 1800s. Article rating: 8.89

For political asylum, for religious freedom, for money, for family duty, for survival, or for dreams, millions of people still immigrate to the United States, despite the tightening of laws, especially since 9/11. Whatever the reason is, people make the choice to journey to the United States, to New York, to a new home. Fine art photographer Jill Enfield found that her lower Manhattan neighborhood is constantly changing both culturally and commercially with the arrival of immigrants seeking for what America means for them, thus the concept of being American is evolving—questioning identity and nationality, countering and co-existing cultures, nullifying cliché remarks such as “American as apple pie” and replacing apple pie with pizza, dumplings, knishes, pierogies, and falafels.

Enfield’s family immigrated to the United States in 1939 because they were German Jews. Enfield and her siblings were the first generation of American born family members and have called New York their home for several decades. Enfield always wondered—how different, if at all, are the new immigrants from their offspring that either came as very young children or were born here like Enfield? How different are the stories? How different are the people with different journeys? Can we share the same path for a moment or maybe a lifetime? What is the social process of becoming “American”? Is the new immigrant now the new American?

Enfield initiated the “New American” project to explore these reasons of immigration, to present a portraiture of that moment within a journey. Photography relies on the balance of time and light in order to bring all to the surface. The wet collodion process requires long exposures, so each subject must sit still for 45 to 60 seconds. In that stillness, the narrative journey begins for the photographer and the viewer. In that silence, the viewer becomes the listener. Enfield desires to show all she hears during the time-lapse within these portraits and to open the viewer’s eyes and ears, hoping to capture a far-reaching heritage behind the eyes of the subject. Enfield encounters each face, seeing the generations that have passed and the possibilities of generations to come. She looks for the child within the eyes and envisions the aged and enriched person that he or she will be. The face becomes the most immediate and tangible display of heritage and genealogy and homeland.

How different stories and different people with different journeys can share the same path for a moment or a lifetime?

Before meeting, knowing or speaking to any of the people in Enfield’s “New American” project, I experienced their portraits and their eyes haunted me, howling wonderment and conjuring questions about their past and current existence—where were you before here? And, before here, who were you? Doctor. Lover. Beggar. From there, what will you keep? Bowing hello, mother’s recipe of kimchee stew, father’s vision. And here, what will you give? Grandfather’s strong arms, grandmother’s wisdom, your heart and hope. What will be your Americanization?

Intrigued by both traditional and technological practice and its effects on the creative process, Enfield believes in the purity and the practice of craft and technique in order to subvert and convert portraits reflective of this contemporary existence. Enfield’s passion for these historical techniques culminated in an award-winning book Photo Imaging: A Complete Guide to Alternative Processes. Enfield contemporizes the traditional technique and form in order to reflect the very nature of the practice. All stops have been removed in order to use everything available today as a tool to be used in any way, shape or form. The person becomes the story for us to discover and technology is a tool for that discovery and in this case the practice is photography. Shooting is part one and the darkroom part two of the process—quality, interest and depth all working together. It is about concepts and finding the tension between seeing what you want to photograph, making an image visible, but not loosing the mystery.

Frank © 2008 Jill Enfield

In this digital age, technology becomes the daily practice of living. The French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, in Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus referred to technology as "organized inorganic matter" and explained eloquently the relationship of humans to technology as "the pursuit of life by means other than life."¹  So, as “organized inorganic matter” accumulates, the natural exists as a referential past or future ideal and as much as technology is kindred of human need and invention, the human now becomes the nature of the practice, such as the person who takes the photograph. Enfield melds together techniques from the 19th century like the wet-collodion to the digital scanning and printing of the 21st century in a seamless manner. The people of the “New American” project are pursuers of life and Enfield’s portraits reflect their journeys “by means other than life”—by technology, by photography.

Frederique © 2008 Jill Enfield

¹ Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), p. 17 and p. 49

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