On this small spit of land, approximately 45 square miles held in a perpetual lease by the US military, actors from the world stage converge: American interrogators attempt to wrest information from Muslim “unlawful enemy combatants;” Jamaican and Filipino guest workers are imported by contractors to serve food, cut hair at the barbershop, and wash the laundry; and on the base’s residential streets that resemble an American suburb, a handful of Cuban families who fled Castro’s takeover of the island live out their days in exile. Against this backdrop, there are also strikingly mundane activities that take place: Children go to school, guards pick up coffee at McDonald’s and Starbucks, and backyard barbeques are planned.
Restrictions by the military made making photographs of people at GTMO impractical, so I chose instead to photograph the environments that people create and inhabit rather than the people themselves, the stage sets rather than the players. –Christopher Sims
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From an exhibit at the Civilian Art Projects in Washington, DC. Running February 13–March 14, 2009.