The New Bedford Light

Hidden in Plain Sight

Eleonora Bianchi

No one is looking at the camera in Eleonara Bianchi’s photographs of immigration raids in a small Guatemalan community in Massachusetts. Instead, a subject’s back is turned or they hold an object — a cat in one case, and a vase of roses in another — in front of their face. 

Some photographs show a meal a father had prepared for the family but never got to eat. He was arrested during a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents. Another photograph shows wood splinters on the floor — remnants of the door and frame the agents burst through. 

The photographs are part of a series about ICE raids in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the state’s South Coast. Those photographed had experienced immigration arrests. Despite their fear, they shared their stories with the New Bedford Light. Bianchi asked them to conceal their faces behind symbolic objects or to turn away from the camera as a way to protect their identities while honoring their presence.

“The danger of hiding the subjects faces in a photo is that it can lead to cliché. In this case it works, because of the threats from immigration enforcement,” a judge said. 

“The photos have humanity and a sense of immediacy, as if you are living the horror.”

Read the Winning Work

Two Guatemalans detained in early morning ICE raid in New Bedford March 21, 2025

Guatemalan immigrant in U.S. for 30 years arrested by federal agents May 6, 2025

After the raid, a teenager steps up to care for her family June 17, 2025