ARRIVALS: The Beginning

The Arrivals Team

Jon Cox and Andrew Bale

Photographers Jon Cox and Andrew Bale met in 2003 while pursuing their MFAs at the University of Delaware and have remained close friends to this day.

Their first professional collaboration began in 2014 when they traveled to Peru to begin a documentary project on the Ese'Eja, one of the Amazon Rainforest’s last remaining indigenous cultures. The Ese’Eja People of the Amazon: Connected by a Thread traveled to different museums and galleries across the United States including Boise State University in 2018.

While in Boise, Jon and Andy met Dr. Palina Louangketh. They were inspired by her family experience of arriving to Idaho as refugees from Laos and the emotional account of ‘what they left behind’ and hope for ‘what lies ahead.’ They came to learn that Boise Idaho was home to a large and diverse community of refugees, immigrants and Native American diaspora.

In 2019, they began to work on ARRIVALS: What's Left Behind, What Lies Ahead. Arrivals is a collaborative multidisciplinary project that began by recording and disseminating the stories of refugees and immigrants living in Idaho and the Native Americans that have been displaced from their ancestral lands. Refugees, immigrants, and Native Americans from over 100 countries are participating in this project.