Hope on the border (Illustration), El Paso-Juárez, 2021
Text/Photography by Bruce Berman
This is not a photograph. It is an “illustration.” It’s a “montage,” a form of photography that goes all the way back to the near beginnings of photography. The distinction between “illustration,” and “photograph,” is that the former is an idea and an opinion and the latter exploits photography’s main strength: believability.
As far as hope goes, on the border, we waver between illustration and believability. Is it getting better? Worse? The same? Is the Juárez side more reality than the El Paso side or vice versa? What is reality and fiction.
I’ll hide behind the photo.It was fun to make. That’s a whole other “reality.”
