Daughters is a photograph of two young girls whose father was recently deported from the U.S. to Mexico. The deportation of undocumented immigrants has long been U.S. policy. Children whose parents are deported are typically placed in the foster care system. In 2017, the Trump administration increased deportations and began sending children to government detention centers rather than foster families. Between October 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, over 2,700 families were separated.  

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Daughters was originally commissioned by Time magazine for the cover story entitled “Ripped Apart.” 

 

In 2018, the work was included in Coordinates: A Public Art Project, curated by Nancy Baker Cahill. Using Baker Cahill’s app, 4th Wall, Daughters was transformed into a site-specific augmented reality (AR) artwork. The piece includes two identical photos in two Washington, D.C. locations. The first hovers over the reflecting pool on the west side of the National Mall, such that it blocks the view of the Capitol Building. The second image is one mile away, floating in the sky above the Department of Justice as if it were a flag. The images are a reminder that it takes the complicity of many people to enforce an administration’s policies.

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In 2020 an additional version of Daughters called This Little was created in collaboration with Glenda Carpio for DYKWTCA, organized by artists and activists Mary Ellen Carroll and Lucas Michael. The work was made utilizing the Flores Accounts in solidarity with the detained and separated children at the U.S.-Mexico border.