Across the United States, communities of faith are offering physical refuge to undocumented immigrants. Sanctuary is the last alternative for keeping families together while they fight for a suspension of deportation.
In the absence of any significant governmental protection, immigrants are the ones at the front lines pursuing humanitarian strategies. Positioning those who take sanctuary as resistance leaders, Cinthya’s work centers the emotional, psychological, and political impact of taking sanctuary, while showing the poignant, quiet, and tender moments of establishing home, routine, and community–imagery rarely depicted in the mainstream representation of asylum seekers.
Artist Bios
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Cinthya Santos Briones
Cinthya Santos Briones is a visual artist and educator with Nahua roots based in New York. She grew up in Tulancingo, a town nestled among mountains and valleys surrounded by Nahua, Otomi, and Tepehua Indigenous communities in Mexico. She studied Ethnohistory and Anthropology, and for ten years, she conducted research on Indigenous migration, codices, textiles, and traditional medicine at the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico.
As an artist, her work focuses on a multidisciplinary social practice that combines participatory art and the construction of collective narratives. Through various non-linear narrative media, she juxtaposes photography with historical archives, writing, ethnography, drawings, collage, embroidery, and popular education and activism. She holds an MFA focus in Creative Writing and Photography from Ithaca-Cornell University, as well as a certificate in Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism from the International Center of Photography (ICP). She is currently an adjunct professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.
She has received fellowships and grants from the Magnum Foundation, En Foco, National Geographic Research and Exploration, We Woman, City Artist Corps, Wave Hill House Winter Residency, and BricLab Contemporary Art, among others, and was a Mellon Artist Fellow at the Hemispheric Institute at NYU. Her work has been published in The New York Times, California Sunday Magazine, Vogue, Open Society Foundations, Buzzfeed, The Intercept, The New Yorker, and Hyperallergic, among others.
Organizations
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Magnum Foundation
Magnum Foundation expands creativity and diversity in visual storytelling, activating new audiences and ideas through the innovative use of images. Through grants, mentorship, and creative collaborations, we partner with socially engaged imagemakers exploring new models for storytelling. Since our founding in 2007 by members of the Magnum Photos cooperative, we have made more than 600 direct grants to visual storytellers from over 80 countries. To find out about upcoming exhibitions and events, learn about grant opportunities, or join our community of support, please visit magnumfoundation.org
Living in Sanctuary
Featuring: Cinthya Santos Briones
Locations
View Location Details Annenberg Space for PhotographyCentury Park,
2000 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles,
CA 90067
Location open 24 hours
