When we think about photography that explores migration, we often expect to see faces: portraits filled with emotion, hardship, and identity. But in her photo collection Passing Through, Mexican visual artist Olivia Vivanco takes a different approach. Across 20 striking photographs, she tells the story of migration without directly showing the people who live it.
Instead, Vivanco focuses on what remains: abandoned belongings, empty shelters, worn-out paths, railway tracks, dining halls, and temporary refuges. Developed along migratory routes across Mexico, the project moves through spaces defined by movement, waiting, and uncertainty. A mattress left behind, a pair of shoes, or a plastic bag hanging from a nail becomes a quiet marker of presence, memory, and resilience. These images feel almost like deferred portraits; the individuals are not shown, but their stories are deeply felt in every frame.
Scroll down to see 20 photographs from Passing Through by Olivia Vivanco, and don’t forget to upvote the images that stay with you the most.
Vivanco’s approach is deliberate. Rather than presenting migration as a spectacle or reducing it to a humanitarian crisis, Passing Through reflects on how displacement can be represented in a more ethical way, without exposing, stigmatizing, or simplifying those already in vulnerable situations. By shifting the focus from the face to the trace, the series invites viewers to slow down, look differently, and consider how photography can hold space for dignity, absence, survival, solidarity, and hope.
