Where the Line Blurs

Where the line blurs is a photographic work focusing on the landscape and people behind the headlines in Mexico’s northern border. 

Covering some 3000km from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, the region has often been portrayed through stories of cartel violence, disappearances, the impact of US border policies, and the different waves of migrants and refugees.

While at first I was also drawn to photograph these, eventuallythe focus moved to the opposite end: the realities around those headlines. How local men and women would continue on their day-to-day despite the pervasive violence. I wanted toportray the invisible. The palpable tension. The distances. The disconnection and the isolation. The marks left on the landscape by the fights to control it. 

Working intuitively and trying not to be too influenced by what I already knew of the region, I aimed for a nuanced approach that could reveal the complex realities of a region that seems to be in permanent state of flux.

Along it I saw celebrations, departures and waiting moments. I found landscapes that revealed the tensions underneath: abandoned houses, burned villages, fenced deserts. The wall as a symbolic and literal division of the Americas: the English and the Spanish-speaking worlds. A hyper-secured border and the most crossed border in the world. The longing of those wanting to cross to the US, and the hopes of those settling to work in a region that had expanded industrially due to free trade agreements. The cultural mix bringing influences from north and south. I could also see parallels with other borders; regions where two countries are the closest, yet the farthest too. 

The work contemplates the everyday life of those inhabiting the region, whether temporary or permanently, and their relationship with their environment. It invites us to pause and reflect on the myriad of stories that are happening in one of the most contested borders in the world.