The Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion welcomed Minneapolis-based photographer John Noltner on Feb. 13 to work on his latest ongoing collection “I Am Human,” which seeks to bring humanity back to Minnesotans facing President Donald Trump’s large-scale Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) activities.
Operation Metro Surge, a Department of Homeland Security immigration enforcement campaign where 2,000 federal agents were deployed in Minnesota, incited a wave of social unrest for the state and the country. All eyes were on Minnesota as it became a hot-button national topic: two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal agents, and five-year old Liam Conejo Ramos was unlawfully detained. Seeing this, Noltner began “I Am Human,” a collection of portraits celebrating Minnesota’s diverse demographic amidst unrest.
“It feels like, at the very basic level, the rhetoric, the headlines, [and] the political tension in the world is disregarding the common humanity that we all share,” Noltner said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “So this is a way to use my art as a gentle nudge to respond to that.”
Noltner’s collection comprises portraits of Minnesotans taken all over the Twin Cities — from organized places such as San Pablo Lutheran Church and the Islamic Resource Group, to impromptu events like singing vigils taking place on Minneapolis’ streets. St. Olaf College has now joined the project.
With international students and students of color making up roughly a third of the College’s population, the campus community has been actively responding to ICE operations — not just in the Twin Cities, but in Northfield as well. Since the detainment of Northfield resident Adán Núñez Gonzalez, students have gathered to protest and continue to fundraise for those affected by ICE operations within the community. The collection’s birth as a response to Operation Metro Surge is what drew students to be photographed for the project.
“Considering the state of the world right now, having representation of minority groups and people of color is something that’s really important to me,” Zia Fatima ’28 said in an interview with The Olaf Messenger. “I just think having art as a form of resistance and having the privilege to be a part of it is huge.”
Noltner’s collection has been projected on the YWCA (Young Women’s Christian Association) Minneapolis’ wall on Lake Street and will continue to be shown in Minneapolis on the wall of St. Olaf Catholic Church starting Feb. 17-19. Beyond the Twin Cities, “I Am Human” will be shown at an art center in Worthington, Minn., and in Belfast, Ireland as a storytelling project.
When asked why he chose to name the exhibition “I Am Human,” Noltner said, “I was with a few of my Latino friends, and they said, ‘Well, at the end of the day, we know that we’re human. The ones who don’t seem to recognize our humanity tend to be English-speaking people.’”
