The "SOME PEOPLE" Essays
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free by Dermot Tatlow | Edited by Kimberly J. Soenen May 16, 2025
(All photos by Dermot Tatlow.)
The night was bitterly cold as the temperature dropped to 14 degrees Fahrenheit in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, where hundreds of cars parked overnight outside the Knott County Sportsplex.
Inside the vehicles, families sat huddled inside their cars, running their engines intermittently for warmth. They planned to be there all night to make sure they got a first-come, first-served ticket to access desperately needed free medical and dental healthcare.
(All photos by Dermot Tatlow.)
Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic trucks are emblazoned with signs that say, “Disaster Relief.” Staffed by volunteers, RAM was founded to provide medical services to the most vulnerable people in world. That was, until RAM realized that the most vulnerable people also lived in the United States of America, where RAM now provides more than half of its services.
RAM’s field hospital setup was originally designed to cater to mass casualties caused by natural disasters and conflicts in other countries. They recognized that in the United States millions of insured and uninsured people are consistently and systemically denied healthcare, or are unable to afford it, which has caused a man made disaster born of haste, speed and greed.
Many insured and uninsured people are workers who hold two—and sometimes three—jobs. Unfortunately, these minimum wage and part-time jobs allow employers to legally avoid providing their employees with medical insurance.
(All photos by Dermot Tatlow.)
For me, a European photographer who has covered refugees and evacuees from conflicts and natural disasters around the world, I was astonished to see hundreds of American families, with young children in their cars, lined up overnight in freezing conditions to seek the most basic healthcare.
The poem on the Statue of Liberty reads, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...” And here, they were huddled still, on a frozen mountain in Leburn, Kentucky.
(All photos by Dermot Tatlow.)
People are made to take a number in order to access healthcare at the RAM temporary field clinic in Leburn, Kentucky and the other clinics RAM hosts around the country. As relieved as these families are to access medical care on this day, their abiding question is, “What will we do when we need healthcare tomorrow?”
These people have become Healthcare Refugees in their own country.
(Remote Area Medical Clinic, Leburn, Kentucky, 2009. United States Healthcare Refugees. All photos by Dermot Tatlow.
ABOUT
Dermot Tatlow is an Irish photojournalist and visual artist living in Washington, DC. He was previously based in Hong Kong, Berlin, and Bogota. His editorial work focuses on politics, culture and the environment, covering the not-so-United States of America from Alaska to Florida, as well as major international stories such as the rise of modern China and the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Magazine features include stories on North Korea, Ethiopia's famed long-distance runners, a beauty pageant in a high-security Colombian women's prison (spoiler alert: the assassin won) and child miners in Bolivia.
Tatlow's work appears in major international publications including TIME, Newsweek, The New Yorker, Der Spiegel, Geo, Stern, Helsingin Sanomat, The Financial Times, National Geographic Traveler, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Marie Claire, Businessweek, Bloomberg News, Foreign Policy....
He has photographed for The World Health Organization, documenting the Asian Tsunami, and for The American Red Cross covering hurricanes and California wildfires.
His corporate work includes photography for Gilbert LLP, Price Waterhouse Coopers, HSBC, Handelsblatt as well as US election campaigns for state senate and mayoral candidates.
His videos have appeared on The Daily Telegraph and the Sydney Morning Herald's websites.
Tatlow is represented by the British photo agency, Panos Pictures, www.panos.co.uk and the German agency, Agentur LAIF www.laif.de. He has written cover stories for the Sunday Independent Magazine (UK) and the Weekend Australian Magazine.
Note from The Editor: These photos are part of a larger “SOME PEOPLE” art installation. More than 50 images by Dermot Tatlow were hung on a clothes line one might see in a rural area. At the end of the rope was a noose.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Access Medical Care - Remote Area Medical Clinic Schedule
Take Action - Learn more about the National Improved Medicare for All Legislation
Read - Medicare for All A Citizen’s Guide
Support and Endorse - Abdul El-Sayed for U.S. Senate (Michigan)
Listen - The Nocturnists
Visit “SOME PEOPLE”