MIGRATION / ADAPTATION

The Migrant Project: Contemporary California Farm Workers

When envisioning California most people imagine a warm sea-sprayed coastline, redwood forests, the opulence of Beverly Hills or the magic of Hollywood. It is easy to forget the farmland.

As the fifth largest economy in the world, California's leading industry is actually agriculture. California agriculture provides more than 50% of the produce consumed in America, amassing $27 billion yearly in annual cash revenue. In fact, California's agricultural output is well over three times the combined annual domestic box office receipts of the entire U.S. motion picture industry.

Even easier to forget is that 34 million Californians are Latino farm laborers without whom this state's vital agriculture economy simply could not function. This virtually invisible underclass--whose days begin in darkness and involve unending hours of stooped labor, often under brutally hot sun for wages rarely amounting to more than $10,000 a year--quite literally feeds our country.

The Migrant Project is an in-depth photojournalistic portrait detailing the lives and struggles of today's California migrant farm workers. From 2002 - 2003, Rick Nahmias traveled nearly 4,000 miles throughout California, photographing over 50 rural communities to create a humanistic portrait of the poorest and most consistently invisible segment of our society. The result depicts family life, culture, children and pesticides, the search for housing, health care and work, and the scraping together of community. Accompanied by bilingual text, the exhibition puts a human face to the people whose labor brings the food we eat to our tables.  

Rick Nahmias

Rick Nahmias is a photographer, writer and filmmaker whose work has been shown across the United States, Europe and Asia. In recognition of The Migrant Project he was awarded a U.S. Congressional Citation from Rep. Loretta Sanchez, and the inaugural 2002-2003 Jason K. Stern Scholarship by the Julia Dean Photo Workshops in Los Angeles. Nahmias teaches workshops and lectures on the status of farm workers and about his journey in creating this project.

He has recently completed Golden States of Grace: Prayers of the Disinherited, a photographic exploration of the spiritual practices of marginalized communities.

Nahmias graduated from New York University with a double major in Film and Religious Studies. His images and writing have been published in numerous newspapers, magazines and journals.  

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