A matter of WHEN: stories of New Mexico's downwinders
Sofie Hecht

Opening reception: Friday, September 13, 6-9pm
Closing reception: Friday, October 4, 6-9pm
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Detonated in Southern New Mexico on July 16, 1945, Trinity’s residual fallout traveled as far as Canada, Mexico, and 46 U.S. states. Half a million people lived within the primary 150 square-mile radiation zone of the world’s first atomic bomb. This is a photographic and documentary exploration of the New Mexicans who live downwind of Trinity and continue to experience the effects of radiation exposure. 78 years later, the legacy of the Trinity test lives on in astounding rates of cancer and illness in these communities. This project uses archival materiality—from family photographs, letters, documents, interviews—to represent the deterioration of land and bodies exposed to radiation. It tells these stories through portraits, oral histories, and a decaying family archive.

This project focuses on the communities in the closest 50 mile radius from Trinity, traveling to towns throughout the Tularosa Basin. I have interviewed over 20 different families that suffer from illnesses that they believe are connected to Trinity’s radiation fallout (radiogenic cancers, thyroid issues, fertility problems, vision impairments). I have spoken to 4th generation cancer survivors who have lost children, granddaughters, parents and neighbors to cancer. Many of these people are farmers whose primary food source comes from their own or neighbor’s gardens which are still contaminated. The Downwinders commonly say “We don’t ask if we’re going to get cancer, we ask when.” This project communicates the breadth of this catastrophe and its contemporary implications for downwind communities.

Sofie Hecht Sofie Hecht is a documentary photographer born in Brooklyn, New York and based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her work focuses on queer community, particularly collaborative portraiture, documenting drag performances, and returning home to photograph her own biological family. She graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University in 2018 with a degree in International Literary and Visual Studies (ILVS) and Spanish. She moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2019 where she began working for the non-profit youth group home Casa Q that supports queer youth without a safe home. She then became a paralegal focused on civil rights lawsuits against prison and jails in support of folks who were incarcerated. She enrolled in the International Center of Photography’s Documentary and Visual Practice online program for their 2023 school year where she worked on a long term project documenting the effects of the nuclear industrial complex on New Mexican families, particularly those in the 50 mile radiation zone from the Trinity site. Sofie also continues to work on a long term documentary and portrait project The Queer Family Photobook about how queer people make alternative family units in Albuquerque. She
is now a Graduate Assistant at the University of New Mexico’s Communication and Journalism department. 

​https://sofiehechtphoto.com/