Mark Tuschman
Immigrants in America
This is a ground-breaking look at one of the most complex and emotion-charged issues facing America today: immigration.
This book is not a polemic. Instead, with stark black and white photographs and first-person stories, this is an illuminating look at some 110 new immigrants to our shores, men and women come from all over the world, and we see what they do, every day, to enrich the life, the culture, and the economy of America. The title says it all: “Together We Rise.”
“What makes someone American isn’t just blood or birth, but allegiance to our founding principles and faith in the idea that anyone — from anywhere — can write the next chapter of our story.”
-President Barack Obama
This book was born in anguish. Four years ago, the celebrated photographer Mark Tuschman became incensed by the anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies then coming out of Washington, and he swung into action, heart engaged and camera in hand. Mark’s resulting photos and personal stories take us from essential workers, to high-tech creators and gifted entrepreneurs and to doctors, nurses and researchers. Mark also brings us into the lives of immigrants seeking citizenship, whether they are undocumented, asylum seekers or DACA recipients. The result is a unique and illuminating portrait of immigrants in America.
“Together We Rise puts a human face on the foundational truth of this country—we are a nation of immigrants. Not to sideline the Indigenous population here before us who also contribute to the fabric of this great nation, the other 98% are from the small hamlets, villages, towns and the great cities in every corner of the world. No other nation can claim the diversity that has made America what it is today. While there are dangerous currents that want to put up walls, Mark Tuschman’s stunning black and white portraits, combined with first-person narratives, is a powerful reminder of the nation that this diversity has created.”
—Glenn Ruga, Executive Editor, ZEKE magazine
Mark Tuschman
“Together We Rise is the transcendent title of Mark Tuschman’s extraordinary photo documentary book celebrating the success stories — against incredible odds — of immigrants from all over the world to the United States of America. Each portrait gives you direct eye contact with the dignity and soul of a human being. Each first-person testimony smashes the malicious stereotypes of immigrants as “invaders” or “victims.” They are contributing the work of their calloused hands, their sharp minds, their compassionate hearts, the sweat of their brow and the flavor of their cooking to our families, our communities, our universities, our economy, our democracy. Meet farm workers and farm owners, judges, physicians, nurses, cancer researchers, children’s caretakers, social workers, entrepreneurs, inventors, children, parents, grandparents. Tuschman took years, tracked down dirt roads, hospital wards and corporate offices to ask immigrants to consent to be photographed in their milieu. He captured their stories in intimate interviews. At personal expense with untiring devotion, Tuschman dedicated his considerable professional skills as a celebrated corporate photographer to this documentary project, the crowning achievement of his career.”