Working the Line
For the last three years I have been photographing the along the U.S./Mexico border between El Paso/Juarez and the Tijuana/San Diego. It is a territory in transition. During that period the United States Border Patrol has doubled in size and the federal government has constructed over 600 miles of pedestrian fencing and vehicle barrier. With apparatus that range from simple tire drags (that erase foot prints allowing fresh evidence of crossing to be more readily identified) to seismic sensors (that detect the passage of people on foot or in a vehicle) the border is under constant surveillance. To date the Border Patrol has attained “operational control” in many areas, however people and drugs continue to cross. Much of that traffic occurs in the most remote and rugged areas of the desert.
My travels along the border have been done both alone and in the company of Border Patrol agents. I have been granted broad access to photograph field operations and the routine activities that occur within Border Patrol stations. The resulting pictures are intended to offer a view into locations and situations that we generally do not access. In doing so, I hope to humanize a subject that is most often framed by ideologically driven polemics.
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