Documentary project

[ryancjones 2]

Hi guys, I'm new here and learning quite a bit roaming the forums. My name is Ryan Jones and I'm a documentary photographer based in NYC. I'm researching and shooting an immigration project and would love some feedback from anyone willing to help.

It's unfortunate that so much of the US immigration dialogue revolves around the undocumented. Of course that's an important issue, but it's a relatively small part of the overall immigration system. The more I'm researching and talking to people, the more complex it's getting. It's humbling to hear people's stories. In my experience, immigration is generally misunderstood by many US-born citizens because of misinformed and biased stereotypes and I feel it's perpetuating the "us vs them" mentality. Honestly, the last few hours on VisaJourney has been more educational than many of the government sites I've been on over the last few months.

So my project is this: I'm finding people that have moved here under the different visa classifications, and I'm telling their stories. I feel immigration is perceived as this giant, monolithic thing, but I'm finding it's more more nuanced and complicated. I want to explore its diversity in age, race, occupation, etc, and both humanize and visualize what immigration actually looks like. I'm so far working with someone who has an EB-1(a)/E11 and someone else with a CR1, but looking for people with all different types of classifications. It's going to be a long term project and I'm just getting my feet wet now, but I feel your stories are important ones to tell. So I'm here to put my name out there and see if anyone would be interested in chatting with me about their experiences and their lives as an immigrant to the US.

The project is going to be photo-driven with written text, but right now I'm just in the beginning stages of initial interviews and preliminary photographing. I'd love to talk with people in NYC but I'm also open to travel. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me at ryan@ryancjonesphoto.com. Below are a couple links to some recent work of mine. And to the admin - I apologize if I posted in the wrong area.

Ryan Jones

ryan@ryancjonesphoto.com

Washington Post feature: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2014/11/24/old-world-technique-missouri-organic-farm

Portfolio: http://www.ryancjonesphoto.com/stories/

[shell20 746]

You should join our thread, probably the longest thread here, so long that they had to open a new one due to the overload regarding AOS and the very, very long wait to get a GC after marrying an American Citizen.. This is a link to part two of the thread for your perusal. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/541331-notice-of-potential-interview-waiver-case-part-ii/

Hi guys, I'm new here and learning quite a bit roaming the forums. My name is Ryan Jones and I'm a documentary photographer based in NYC. I'm researching and shooting an immigration project and would love some feedback from anyone willing to help.

It's unfortunate that so much of the US immigration dialogue revolves around the undocumented. Of course that's an important issue, but it's a relatively small part of the overall immigration system. The more I'm researching and talking to people, the more complex it's getting. It's humbling to hear people's stories. In my experience, immigration is generally misunderstood by many US-born citizens because of misinformed and biased stereotypes and I feel it's perpetuating the "us vs them" mentality. Honestly, the last few hours on VisaJourney has been more educational than many of the government sites I've been on over the last few months.

So my project is this: I'm finding people that have moved here under the different visa classifications, and I'm telling their stories. I feel immigration is perceived as this giant, monolithic thing, but I'm finding it's more more nuanced and complicated. I want to explore its diversity in age, race, occupation, etc, and both humanize and visualize what immigration actually looks like. I'm so far working with someone who has an EB-1(a)/E11 and someone else with a CR1, but looking for people with all different types of classifications. It's going to be a long term project and I'm just getting my feet wet now, but I feel your stories are important ones to tell. So I'm here to put my name out there and see if anyone would be interested in chatting with me about their experiences and their lives as an immigrant to the US.

The project is going to be photo-driven with written text, but right now I'm just in the beginning stages of initial interviews and preliminary photographing. I'd love to talk with people in NYC but I'm also open to travel. If anyone has any questions please feel free to email me at ryan@ryancjonesphoto.com. Below are a couple links to some recent work of mine. And to the admin - I apologize if I posted in the wrong area.

Ryan Jones

ryan@ryancjonesphoto.com

Washington Post feature: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2014/11/24/old-world-technique-missouri-organic-farm

Portfolio: http://www.ryancjonesphoto.com/stories/

[Penguin_ie 5,993]

This has been approved as a project to be posted about on Visajourney by Captain Ewok.

[ryancjones 2]

Thanks to the admins for approving this post, and a huge thanks to everyone that emailed me. You have some really incredible stories and I'm learning so much.

Right now I'd love to talk with people/families under a family-sponsored visa, 1st-4th preference, and those of you with EB-2, EB-3, or EB-4. Thank you to everyone willing to out yourselves out there.