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- Ivana – BULGARIA “It’s good for people to feel patriotic about their country…. But just imagining that she is going to go and say the Pledge of Allegiance every day, and start saying that she’s an American, is a bit painful to me.” – Ivana’s mother
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- Van Ado – DOMINICA “I consider myself American, as a citizen, but… it’s not where my roots come from… I was just born here. American is just a label, it doesn’t mean anything. My blood is from Dominica.” – Van Ado
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- Yasein – SUDAN “After the [Boston Marathon] bombing, it was bad because people thought that Muslims are violent. Islam is not about violence. It’s about caring for other people and it’s treating other people nicely. And if they don’t treat you nicely you should still treat them nicely. I want Americans to know that.” – Yasein
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- Imani – SPAIN “I always have regrets of being here. I really, really miss a lot of it. I always have questions about how they are going to feel about their own roots, and their family, and not having that much of a connection with them, or a long distance connection with them. I wonder how it must feel to them.” – Daniel’s mother
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- Izn & Azm – PAKISTAN “Our goal is to grow them as global human beings. Not only bound in one tradition or culture. The universe is open for them, whatever they want to learn. They should learn only good. Their names mean this – Izn is “permission for good”. It’s an Arabic word. And she’s Azm, it means “determination for good.” – Izn & Azm’s father
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- Zahraa – IRAQ “It was scary when we got here — everything was different, it was winter and we only had shorts and flip-flops. We came from the refugee camp and didn’t have winter clothes!” – Zahra
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- Maya & Sofia – ALGERIA “When I left Algeria, in the ‘90’s it was really bad because of terrorism. So I had really bad images. It scarred me for life. Nothing happened to my family, but it happened to my cousin. Her husband was killed. My dad worked for the government, so we were always worried, is he home safe, is he gonna be killed. I miss my family, my friends. But there is a lot I don’t miss.” – Maya & Sofia’s mother
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- Kevin & Brandon – GUATEMALA “If American people went to Guatemala, then they would feel what it’s like to be in a new country, where everything is strange. Maybe then they would treat immigrants better here. – Brandon
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- Carina-AUSTRIA “There’s stuff I like about being Austrian. It’s cool that I can speak German. My mom makes special foods like spaetzle and noodle soup. But I miss my Oma and Opa and I don’t get to see all my cousins very much. Sometimes that makes me sad and I cry.”
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- Bereket – ETHIOPIA “No one ever talks about racism. Kids aren’t comfortable with sharing private things, and talking about their culture. On Martin Luther King day my teacher puts on the speech. What I think is, don’t be mean to people. Even if they’re a different skin color doesn’t mean they act different. It’s just the color of their skin!” – Bereket
Randi Freundlich
Children of the World / Boston
I’ve always been interested in my own family’s immigrant origins. Where did we come from, and how does that make us who we are? How do parents, who emigrated to the U.S. from other places, help their children understand who they are, in their new world?
I met many immigrant families in my job as a social worker, and was fascinated to learn more about their lives. I began photographing the children, and listened to how they understood their family’s immigrant story. Photographing them in their homes here in Boston, I love to see how they ‘become Americans’, and at the same time hold on to some of their identity from the home country. A mother from Pakistan dresses her daughter in a sari, and the little girl only wants Barbie dolls. A boy from Cape Verde plays African drums, and also loves baseball.
Children of the World | Boston is a story, in photographs and words, about children of immigrant families who live in Boston. My goal is to photograph children from different countries, all living in the Boston area. I interview each family to learn about their experiences living in the U.S., and here in Boston. I ask the parents and children to talk about their identities. A 12 year-old boy said, “I was born in America, but my parents are from the Caribbean. I’m American by citizenship, but ‘American’ is just a label… my blood is from Dominica.”
I want to introduce these different worlds and cultures to a wider audience. My hope is that the viewer will learn something about the ‘children of the world’ here among us.
Artist Bio
Randi Freundlich is a Boston-based photographer and social worker. She received a BFA in photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has studied at New England School of Photography, Massachusetts College of Art, Maine Media Workshops, and the Griffin Museum of Photography.
Freundlich’s photography style is documentary portraiture; it’s informed by her social work with parents and families. Describing her process, she says, “social work and making portraits have a common theme – in their essence they are both about the relationship between people. Being successful in both endeavors requires establishing a feeling of trust. With photography, I hope to reduce the distance between the subject and the viewer, between people or worlds that are often very different from each other.”
Her current project brings her personal and professional lives together. Children of the World/Boston includes images and stories about children of immigrant families living in Boston. Growing up Jewish in Texas, Freundlich was a minority in terms of culture and religion. She was interested in the stories of her grandparents and great-grandparents, who emigrated from Europe.
Freundlich’s series has been exhibited at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from 2013 to 2014, and at Boston City Hall from December 2014 to January 2015. A slideshow of Children of the World/ Boston images is currently included in the Dreams of Freedom exhibit at the Prudential Center’s Skywalk Observatory in Boston.
http://www.RandiFreundlichPhotography.com
Contact Randi Freundlich