As part of his Migrant Workers series, Wesaam Al-Badry has documented the lives of essential agricultural workers and their families in California’s Central Valley and Salinas Valley since April 2020. These areas represent the fertile heart of California agriculture, where farmworkers harvest over a third of the vegetables and 40% of the fruit and nuts grown in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the vulnerabilities of these farming communities already hard-hit by housing shortages, food insecurity, unsafe working conditions, and the threat of deportation. Al-Badry’s photographs reveal the “real people with hopes and fears” behind the fresh fruits and vegetables on our tables. During some forty visits over the past two years and in hours of recorded interviews, Al-Badry developed ongoing relationships with the people he met, visiting them at home, in their communities, and at work in California’s fields. The photographs convey resilience, empathy, and human dignity, three qualities the artist aims to foreground in all of his work.

Marianna series is a social exploration project that investigates the Appalachian and post-coal mining community of Marianna, PA. In the course of this ongoing project, Wesaam Al-Badry seeks to personalize and expand the lives of the members of a deeply historical community. With intimate images of family, community, history and industry, the artist opens us up to this small town with stories and unique connections, personalizing and elevating this community beyond reductive stereotypes. Historically, Marianna was once a mining community, and remnants of this remain with a man-made mountain of coal ash. The town itself sits on top of a riverbank. On the one hand, it is idyllic Appalachia with beautiful, wooded forests and winding streams and rivers. On the other, it is a community besieged with problems, from the constant noise and light pollution to rising health problems.