Angel in the ‘hood
Young Jefe in Armjo
<ph4align=”center”>Carlos the young jefe, Armijo Park, El Paso / August 2008
Carlos is his name.
I don’t know…what…maybe 10 or 11?
No doubt, though, he is the leader of his pack.
Fancy shoes / Zapatas ricos
Fancy shoes, Juarez, 2008
Pipe In the valley
Pipe in the landscape, Mesilla Valley, Fall 2008
The great divide: Juarez/El Paso
Border landscape #47, Juarez/El Paso – August 1, 2008
Mist and mirrors: facts and fictions
Mist and mirrors d’town, El Paso – 6:38:51pm/July 28, 2008
I am supposed to be packing right now. I have a job in another city. It starts in three weeks. I won’t be leaving. This corner, this light, these people, their shadows, have inveighed my life for an adulthood…a long time.
Border fools and border delights: You gotta look hard
Americo with prayer shawl, yamulke and guitar,
Segundo barrio, El Paso – July 26, 2008
Why do I ever leave my loft?
Went to the gym where a friend of over three years, a retired professor at the local university, someone who has never displayed anything but kindness and goodwill, out of the clear blue, no warning, told me “…the Jews got what they deserved after all the stuff they did as bankers in Germany, don’t you think?”
Wha-a-a-a-a-a?!
El Paso and Russell Lee and the border (3 blocks)
© Russell Lee Photograph Collection, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin
Swimming pool at Armijo Park, El Paso, Texas, 1949
Gilbert and Pooch
Gilbert and Pooch, El Paso – July 12, 2008
Assume nothing.
I asked this man, in Espanol, if I could photograph him and his Chihuahua (part of a series I’ve been doing for a long time).
“I don’t speak Spanish,” he countered.
Why would I think he was Spanish-speaking?
Juarez murders: it’s complicated
Protesting policeman, Juarez -March 2008
photograph by Julian Cardona
Photo and story by Julian Cardona
March 31, 2008
About 50 Juárez police officers protested what they consider the arbitrary arrests of fellow officers by the recently arrived Mexican army in ciudad Juarez. They were protesting the alleged framing of numerous officers on charges of drug possession.
El Paso/Juarez view
El Paso/Juarez – July 10, 2008
El Paso: foreground.
Juarez: Background.
Words written in blood on old documents and rattling around in people’s heads who don’t live there.
Border story: Miguel, postman and mensch
Miguel, postman and mensch, El Paso – July 2008
Miguel.
Another border encounter.
He’s a savior for me on this day.
Barrio warrior for Jesus: El Paso
James Barraza, Segundo barrio, El Paso – June 30, 2008
James Barraza prowls the Segundo barrio with his Bible and attempts to spread “the good word.”
AIDS balloon at the border
AIDs balloon at the border, El Paso – June 27, 2008
Three women at a diet clinic: Juarez
Grand-daughter, grandmother and mother visiting a diet doctor in Juarez – June 21, 2008
Chaparral, New Mexico
Restaurant, Chapparal, New Mexico – June 24, 2008
Ayudanos (todos de nosotros)
Ayudanos/Help us, El Paso – 2008
Bi in Juarez
Biplane in Juarez, June 21, 2008
Roof Cam: Borderlands Suite
Roof Cam #8, El Paso – June 2008
I’m driving around my city. I’m moving my operation a little to the north of where I am now, north of the border, north of the borderline, north of my reality. I’m already feeling separation depression. So I drive around my turf of 30 years. I don’t have to look anymore, I know the bricks, the cracks, the fault lines. I’ve shot them a million times and re-shot them. I stick the camera out the sunroof and let the car become part of the camera. The car is the camera. and I tour my myth. This is between me and it, not meant for others. All of my work is getting there now, it’s between me and it.
Wary girl in downtown El Paso
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: May 23-30, 2008
Wary girl in downtown El Paso
Notes from my Journal, September 1986
I am an illegal alien in a strange land.
That’s a phrase they use a lot in the newspaper here: Illegal Alien.
Man who crossed the river
PHOTO OF THE WEEK (#2): May 16-23, 2008
Man who jumped the river,
waving at his friends in Juarez (in triumph),
standing on US side/ El Paso-Juarez, 1990’s
Dreamland USA (se fue)
Remnant #37, Less gas/Alameda Street, El Paso, Texas – May 12, 2008
“Gas for less.”
Less gas.
This is not a glitch, it is the changing of a culture.
Usually when a culture changes -sorry Barack- it is the result of a calamity: Depression, war, pandemic, natural disaster. Were it not so, but “change,” is not engineered. Eventually, it is managed.
Juarez: Music and bullets in the air
Juarez harps(?), May 2008
There hasn’t been so much gunfire in Juarez since 1910. Since Jan.1, there have been over 230 drug war-related murders.
There was a time in Juarez -bourgeoise and ugly Americano, for sure, but what the hell- that it was just the old fashioned sins: getting drunk, dancing, straggling around with whatever “date,” that’d allow you to put your hands on her ( or whatever) and, if you survived, you crawled home over the bridge to El Paso and woke up late the next day.
The bridge that divides
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: May 2-9, 2008
The bridge that divides, El Paso to Juarez, Jan. 2008
The Paso del Norte bridge between Juarez and El Paso. This is a bridge in hell.
Stuck in Juarez: Time warp (siempre es lo mismo)
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: April 25-May2, 2008
Stuck in Juarez, colonia Avicola-1989
The Silva family came to Juarez with the intention of crossing the border, into the U.S. and then traveling to the Midwest, where a family member had preceded them. They intended to work in agriculture in the wheat fields of Kansas. A dream. The American dream. It wasn’t to be their dream.
Headphones
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: April 18-25, 2008
Headphones, segundo barrio / El Paso – Jan. 31, 2008
Headphones Ninth Street and Oregon. The first street north of the border in El Paso, Texas. Jan. 31, 2008.
Polaroid no mas. Fotografos estan proxima!
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: April 11-18, 2008
Polaroid no mas/Polaroid no more, Juarez – 2008
Polaroid Corporation announced in early February that they no longer will make Polaroid instant cameras or film.
This announcement, world wide was greeted, mostly, by a collective shrug of the shoulders and a “ho-hum.”
For Juarez street photographers the news was immediately alarming, living-threatening, and was a call to action for a new learning curve to transition to digital photography.
Woman at protest
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: April 4-11, 2008
Distressed woman at protest at Lomas del Poleo, Juarez-2007
Juarez is in flames right now.
Drug war is raging. I’m calling it a drug war. It’s a lot of things war. Always is.
Primavera in the borderlands
White Sands National Monument, NM – March 20, 2008
Spring has sprung in the desert. If only for a moment…time to play.
Nasty Bunny
Nasty bunny, Easter/Pasqua in Juarez, 2007 – Juarez, Mexico