Portraits for Texas/Mexico Border Migrant Families

And that's a wrap on 2023! Thank you for supporting our nonprofit and this specific project.

A quick recap: we are Retake, a nonprofit that offers free family portraits to those starting over who have survived conflicts and disasters. We work with refugees, asylum seekers, and disaster survivors all over North America.

This project is to raise funds for migrant families at border shelters between Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. 

We have been to the border twice in collaboration with an organization on the ground called Abara. We photographed families on both sides of the border who are in a limbo waiting to legally seek asylum in America after fleeing unimaginable horrors in their home towns and countries. While they are waiting, they have to rely on the generosity of strangers for housing, food, and the basics to survive. We offer any who were interested with a quick and trauma-healing photoshoot with translators. 

We then professionally edit, print, and bring the portraits back to the families so they have new keepsakes as they start over their lives. It is meant to bring them a bit of joy and something positive. 

In other locations that we work, we also frame the portraits but as these families are still in transit and not settled anywhere yet, we do not do frames as to not burden them. 

We are raising funds through this project so we can continue to go back to the border as much as possible and offer this beautiful service to more families. 

Thank you for your support, and we look forward to sharing about the next time we go!

Hello friends! This is a quick review of the work we have done already for this project (that you have so generously supported in the past) as well as a call to once again help these families by donating another time. 

This specific project raises funds so our team can travel to the border between El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico to meet with and photograph families living along the border. They are in the middle of their journeys, and it is a very sensitive time to work with them. Most have been traveling for weeks, if not months, and are now in the limbo period of legally trying to seek asylum in America and having to wait for their turn to plead their case to government officials. While in this waiting period, they rely on the generosity of strangers to help house and feed them. This usually ends up being a border shelter at a church or non-governmental organization on either side of the border (but most are in Mexico). They have left everything they own behind and are starting over because it was the best option for their family.

We partner with an organization on the ground that knows the shelters and is our go-between. We only photograph and meet the families who are interested. We hear their stories through the help of translators in a trauma-informed and healing way. Then we have very quick and easy photoshoots. We professionally edit and then send the digital copies to each family (who all have access to some kind of phone or email) within a few days. We also work with our professional printing service in America to overnight edited copies to be given to the families who would like them, with the help of our partner organization on the ground. We do not give frames as we don't want to burden the families with extra weight, but we do give physical copies to those who want them.

We have had two extremely successful trips to the border photographing over 40 families who originated from the following countries: Honduras, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Haiti, and other regions in Mexico.

We are fundraising so we can complete another trip to the border in early 2024. Thank you so much for your support and for helping these families. Please consider donating again and sharing this project with your own circle of family and friends.

Thank you!

Danielle Desnoyers (Founder + Director | Retake)