We All We Got started as a photography project in 2006 as an idea to address the aftermath of gun violence on young people and their families. This documentary project encompasses a decade of filming and photographing the lives of families impacted by gun violence in black and brown communities. What started as a photography project has evolved through a mix of media; film, writing, audio stories, and exhibitions throughout Chicago and New York. The work has been used to address policy on gun violence and bring awareness to the issues that black and brown communities face. Below are links to the film, photography work, exhibitions, and publications.
We All We Got explores the consequences and devastation of youth violence in contemporary America from 2006 to 2013, through a mix of powerful photographs, incisive essays, and moving letters from diverse individuals affected by this perennial scourge.
Carlos Javier Ortiz’s work provides an avenue for knowing these children and their families. This work is not the end of the conversation about youth violence and society’s complicity in it, but rather the beginning. The terror in the eyes of grieving children and inconsolable mothers only allows the viewer to begin to understand the toll that this reality takes on the children who live it.
The stories take place in Chicago and Philadelphia. By repeatedly returning to the same neighborhoods over the course of eight years, Ortiz shows the plight of the communities with which he has built a deep connection. You see abandoned buildings, memorials for victims, segregation, graffiti, juvenile incarceration, and other constant reminders of the outcomes of violence on young people and their surroundings.
But through all the heartbreak, you also see the incredible resilience of the individuals left behind. And where there is terror, there is also a glimpse of the innocence that remains and a tiny glimmer of hope.