Allan Dinkoff Bears Witness

The story of our civil servants is the story of America in 2025.

Allan Dinkoff didn't plan to bear witness to the destruction of the civil service when he enrolled in the International Center of Photography's documentary photography program, but he couldn't ignore the story of civil servants targeted by the second Trump administration. Allan spent the last year interviewing and photographing over 65 civil servants across at least 19 federal agencies who left their jobs because of the administration.

Through his project, Targeted: Portraits of Civil Servants Under Trump, Allan challenges the administration's claim that civil servants are just "collateral damage" caused by a need for efficiency. He tells stories of the resilience he witnessed while interviewing a cross-section of America, and how many of the employees pivoted to new roles. In the wake of reductions-in-force at the Department of Health and Human Services, Allan highlights the rapid response effort of wellfed to create a support network for fired feds, and the startup micro-bakery Gingersnap Jess Cookies.

Allan's work didn't stop in DC though. He also traveled to Poland to interview former USAID employees who funded their own travel there to assist Ukrainian refugees. More recently, Allan made his way to sunny Los Angeles and sat down with Forking Off hosts Jill and Philip Fields for an in-person interview.

Through our discussion, we explored the idea of what it has meant to be an American for the last 250 years and the existential threat authoritarianism imposes on that idea. Allan also delves deeper into our stories by asking some of the questions we never would have thought to ask each other.

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Check out Allan's portfolio and learn more about his documentary photography project, Targeted: Portraits of Civil Servants Under Trump. You can also find him on LinkedIn.

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Targeted: Portraits of Civil Servants Under Trump

Visual Cortex: 2025 ICP Online Graduates Exhibition
Visual Cortex features long-form visual storytelling projects by recent graduates of ICP’s 2025 Online One-Year Certificate in Documentary Practice: Visual Storytelling program. Developed by a global cohort representing more than ten countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia—including the United States, Guatemala, Mexico, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Ukraine, Hong Kong, and India—the exhibition brings together a wide range of perspectives shaped by distinct cultural, social, and political contexts.This exhibition is the culmination of months of rigorous work. Throughout the program, students honed their craft and developed deeply researched long-form visual narratives through one-on-one mentorship with ICP’s leading practitioners and professionals in the field, enriched by sustained dialogue within a global learning community. Working across time zones and geographies, the cohort engaged critically with visual storytelling as both a creative and ethical practice. Visual Cortex presents a body of work developed in close collaboration with ICP faculty members Gaia Squarci and Alessandro Ghirelli, alongside the student cohort. Together, these projects reflect a shared commitment to visual narrative as a means of inquiry—one that foregrounds observation, responsibility, and emotional resonance. Find the full virtual presentation here.“Storytelling is the act of remembering, sharing, and honoring lived experiences. We are a chorus of eighteen unique visual voices in a year-long journey.We will never know the exact ingredients that makes our fellowship whole. Yet here we sit, around the table in vulnerability, in trust, and in reflection, hoping that every captured breath, tremor of movement, flicker of light will provide some clarity to a complex world.This archive showcases the profound power of visual narrative: to document, communicate, and connect us to the enduring complexities of what make us human. Across this body of work lies a deep commitment to social responsibility, knowledge, and vulnerability” -Graduates, 2025 Online One-Year Certificate in Documentary Practice: Visual StorytellingImage by Evgenii Petrushanskii, DOC Online ’25 ArtistsMichelle BertholleYana BoldyrevaKristina CordonAmalia CosmetatouAllan DinkoffKasey EdgertonEmad Anis Hendrik EtteAlex HudaMitra KhayyamTim KorostashevskyDarina PetrovaEvgenii PetrushanskiiSteven PittsSwastik PalNicolas RosserShawn PridgenHoi Yan TangEli Williamson
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Read about the 2025 ICP Documentary Practice: Visual Storytelling cohort.

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Your Ultimate Spot for Pokémon & Sports Cards Buy | Sell | Trade Newly Opened in Herndon! Welcome to Goatz! Where the Hobby Meets Community At Goatz, we’re more than […]
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