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NOT COLLATERAL DAMAGE:
FEDERAL WORKERS IN 2025
The Trump Administration is targeting millions of civil servants — first demonizing them as “lazy” “deep state” traitors who have worked against the interests of the American people and then terminating tens of thousands of these civil servants without cause. These dedicated civil servants are not collateral damage to government-efficiency initiatives; they are the Trump Administration’s intended targets.
This project will document the experiences of the federal workers whose lives have been impacted by the Trump Administration’s mass layoffs. We need to give voice to the accomplishments of our civil servants and their current trauma. And we need to create a record for historians who years from now will analyze what is happening in American today.
The project seeks to be as inclusive as possible, capturing the stories of former workers across the country at various grade levels and with a wide range of government tenure. The project will capture the experience of the terminated federal workers by interviewing these individuals in their homes or a convenient public place about what drew them to federal service; their experience working for the government, including how they impacted the lives of those who depend on their agencies; how they experienced the Trump Administration’s attacks on the loyalty and work ethic of the federal workforce; how their employment was terminated; and what their lives have been like since they lost their job. A standard interview outline will be used, with a subset of questions for each agency tailored to each agency’s time line and subject area. Following the interview, environmental portraits of the interviewee will be created using a 35mm digital camera, preferably in the location where the interview occurred.
People will be able to participate in the project anonymously if they are concerned about retaliation or other fallout from their participation in the project. Anonymity will will be accomplished by anonymizing the participant’s name and taking photos that hide their identity, such as photographing them from the back, photographing them in silhouette, or photographing only their hands.
The goal is to exhibit the photographs and excerpts from the interviews as widely as possible and to publish a book containing the interview excerpts, the photographs, and an essay that seeks to reach a broad audience.
This project is taking place under the auspices of the International Center for Photography’s Documentary Photography Program. ICP was founded in 1974 to champion “concerned photography” — the creation of socially and politically minded images that have the potential to educate and change the world. https://www.icp.org/about