"DeCesare’s new book, “Unsettled / Desasosiego: Children in a World of Gangs,” part nonfiction history and part memoir, traces how she came to see gangs as both a symptom and a mechanism of emotional trauma. An honest and sobering depiction of gang life, her photographs transcend straightforward documentation, becoming family albums, memorials, and vehicles for social change."
“This rich and emotionally powerful book is the result of the three decades Donna De Cesare has been documenting the effects of gang and political violence on youths both in Central America and in refugee communities in the US. … of the 105 photographs she’s chosen to include, there is no frame that isn’t fully realized and affecting. As layered and striking as her images are, the photos make up only half the story…. A clear and thoughtful writer, De Cesare shares the sometimes-complex stories of the children she has gotten to know over the years… Unsettled is a work of excellent journalism as well as photojournalism; it makes us care about a story with no simple answers.”
