The war on immigration. Based off of Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer, this photoepigram zine seeks to challenge the way we view immigration specifically from Mexico and Central America in the United States.
ON THE WALL WAS CHALKED: They want war. The man who wrote it Has already fallen.
THE WORKERS CRY OUT FOR BREAD The merchants cry out for markets. The unemployed were hungry. The employed Are hungry now. The hands that lay folded are busy again. They are making shells.
IT IS NIGHT The married couples Lie in their beds. The young women Will bear orphans.
THE WAR WHICH IS COMING Is not the first one. There were Other wars before it. When the last one came to an end There were conquerors and conquered. Among the conquered the common people Starved. Among the conquerors The common people starved too.
WHEN IT COMES TO MARCHING MANY DO NOT KNOW That their enemy is marching at their head. The voice which gives them their orders Is their enemy's voice and The man who speaks of the enemy Is the enemy himself.
THOSE WHO TAKE THE MEAT FROM THE TABLE Teach contentment. Those for whom the contribution is destined Demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry Of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss Call ruling too difficult For ordinary men.
ON THE CALENDAR THE DAY IS NOT YET SHOWN Every month, every day Lies open still. One of those days Is going to be marked with a cross.
Routes & Roots of Migration Spring 2015 by Bridget Thompson
Titled “The War on Immigration,” this piece serves as a take on current immigration issues in the United States and on the U.S. border. Based off of Bertolt Brecht’s War Primer, this photo-epigram book seeks to challenge the way we view immigration specifically from Mexico and Central America in the United States. Using militarized and at times violent images juxtaposed next to Brecht’s original poems, I sought to frame the immigration issue through what I believe to be a very appropriate warlike lens. This idea was primarily inspired by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin's War Primer 2, based off of Bertolt Brecht's War Primer. Brecht's original work features photographs cutout from the newspaper during WWII placed next to poems that he wrote serving as a critique of popular media as well as photography and the war itself. War Primer 2 is a modern take on Brecht's original project, using images from Google Image searches of "War on Terror." It reflects how much photography and the way we view has changed over time in regards to war as well. I used Google Image search as a resource for my images and choose to put Brecht’s original poems next to them because the poems were the most useful text I could imagine to use, which would also make my intentions most understood by viewers. The book itself encompasses many of the themes we learned about during our Roots & Routes class, including deaths along the border, increasing border militarization, how policy affects migrants, the social condition of migrants, and the causes of migration.