The Magazine of The Sierra Club
Lens on the Border
A photography exhibit urges viewers to rethink U.S.-Mexico border stereotypes
Existing barriers and fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border are already disrupting the lives of birds and animals, including threatened or endangered species like bison and jaguar. Here, a pair of javelinas find themselves up against the wall. | Photo by Krista Schyler
Arizona’s iconic saguaro cactus blooms from April to June. The flowers open at night and are pollinated by bats; the flowers can be viewed during the cool mornings but then close when the day heats up. Saguaro grow in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert and well south into Sonora, Mexico. | Photo by Bill Hatcher
One section of the existing fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. President Trump’s call for a border wall on the southern border elides the fact that there are already hundreds of miles of barriers along the international frontier. | Photo by Bill Hatcher
Jasmine Stevens is a Tohono O’odham photographer at Bavaquivari High School. This portrait of her brother, Keanu, reveals a glimpse of daily life for young people growing up along the border. | Photo by Jasmine Stevens
During the binational Cabalgata Villista, hundreds of riders participate in a 240-mile-long trail ride. The friendship ride celebrates both the U.S. and Mexican revolutions and commemorates Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. | Photo by Raechel Running
Gathering Don Cuco sotol near Janos, Chihuahua. The harvest of sotol hearts along the U.S.-Mexico border is used to distill the sotol, a spirit similar to tequila. | Photo by Raechel Running
A Mexican juvenile at Nogales is repatriated—or returned—to Mexico. This photo was taken in 2011. | Photo by Alejandra Platt-Torres
Somewhere in the desert wilderness of Santa Cruz County, Arizona, someone has left jugs of water for people crossing the border. A poster of the Virgin of Guadalupe watches over the water cache. | Photo by Alejandra Platt-Torres
A student artist who attended Ajo High School in Ajo, Arizona. Each student was asked to create a symbol representing their experience on the border, draft that symbol in clay sculpture, and draw it on paper to form the background of their portrait. | Photo by Jewel Fraser Clearwater
A student artist who attended Ajo High School in Ajo, Arizona | Photo by Jewel Fraser Clearwater
A student artist who attended C.O.B.A.C.H. High School in Sonoyta Sonora, Mexico | Photo by Jewel Fraser Clearwater
Last spring, the Sierra Club’s Borderlands team, in collaboration with photographers and artists from the United States and Mexico, staged a gallery exhibit titled Lens on the Border in two southern Arizona towns. The eclectic compilation of images sought to capture the essence of life in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Exhibit curators called it an “act of resistance” against the stereotypes and xenophobic sensationalism that plague mainstream representations of the border.
The artists came from a wide range of backgrounds. Alejandra Platt-Torres is a fine art photographer from Hermosillo, Sonora. Bill Hatcher is a documentary photographer whose images have appeared in National Geographic and Smithsonian, among other publications. Krista Schyler is a photographer whose book, Continental Divide, illustrates the natural beauty of the landscapes already harmed by border militarization. The youngest contributor, Jasmine Stevens, is a high school student and a member of the Tohono O’odham nation. Dr. Deni Seymour is a scholar of Native American and Spanish colonial archaeology and ethnohistory. Raechel Running, the show’s lead curator, is an artist who has documented the cultures of the borderlands.
Lens on the Border is scheduled for at least five future exhibits, from Minnesota to Indiana to Mexico City. Here is a selection of some of the artists and images featured in the show.