'DREAM' photographer turns her lens to noncitizens who grew up in U.S.
"The college students at the center of Lupita Murillo Tinnen's large-format color photographic portraits, now on exhibit at Women & Their Work, have big dreams.
One, we learn by the title of the portrait, is a mechanical engineering major; another is marketing major, yet another political science.
Each is captured in his or her bedroom. And each room reveals the endearing emblems of young identity asserting itself. Magazine images of celebrities adorn bulletin boards, and school merit certificates and sports awards hang framed and prominent on walls.
Each room seems preternaturally tidy, ready for its photographic fame.
And yet, the face of each young person is obscured. We see them turned away from us, their identity hidden.
That's because the Dallas-based artist has chosen to document students who are undocumented aliens — non-citizens without legal resident status in the United States."
JEANNE CLAIR van RYZIN in the Austin American-Statesman, Dec. 15, 2010.