Portraits for US/Mexico Border Migrant Families

And that's a wrap on 2023! Thank you for supporting our nonprofit and this specific project.

A quick recap: we are Retake, a nonprofit that offers free family portraits to those starting over who have survived conflicts and disasters. We work with refugees, asylum seekers, and disaster survivors all over North America.

This project is to raise funds for migrant families at border shelters between Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. 

We have been to the border twice in collaboration with an organization on the ground called Abara. We photographed families on both sides of the border who are in a limbo waiting to legally seek asylum in America after fleeing unimaginable horrors in their home towns and countries. While they are waiting, they have to rely on the generosity of strangers for housing, food, and the basics to survive. We offer any who were interested with a quick and trauma-healing photoshoot with translators. 

We then professionally edit, print, and bring the portraits back to the families so they have new keepsakes as they start over their lives. It is meant to bring them a bit of joy and something positive. 

In other locations that we work, we also frame the portraits but as these families are still in transit and not settled anywhere yet, we do not do frames as to not burden them. 

We are raising funds through this project so we can continue to go back to the border as much as possible and offer this beautiful service to more families. 

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to sharing about the next time we go!