One Landscape Divided: Border Wall and Human Crisis
Laurie Smith | United States and Mexico
Photographer: Laurie Smith
Exhibit Title: One Landscape Divided: Border Wall and Human Crisis
Location: United States and Mexico
Decades of political gridlock have prevented comprehensive immigration reform in the US, with bipartisan efforts stalling again in 2024. The border has become a political pawn, impacting countless lives. Starting in 2016, the Trump administration implemented harsh rhetoric and policies, including the centerpieces of both campaigns: building a new 30-foot steel bollard wall along the entire 2000 mile stretch of the border, and threatening mass deportations, all intended to deter migrants. Yet, these policies haven't stopped the flow, because people continue to arrive in faith, not fear.
Driven by the 2016 building of the wall and the revelation of inhumane migrant detentions and separations, this series of photographs documents the human and environmental cost of these ad hoc policies that will continue until humane and sensible bipartisan immigration reform is enacted into law.
These images, from the El Paso/Juarez sector of the borderlands, invite viewers to experience the stark reality of the border wall, humanize those seeking asylum, inform, and challenge complacency about the crisis at the border.
ONE LANDSCAPE DIVIDED/ARTIST STATEMENT/LAURIE SMITH
Being raised in the borderlands of El Paso and Juarez, I have a deeply rooted bi-cultural identity, giving me a unique perspective on the current immigration crisis at the borderline. While critical issues of human migration span the globe and more immediately along the 2000 mile stretch of the US/Mexico border, my focus is the microcosm of one landscape now divided, where West Texas, New Mexico and Mexico meet.
These photographs are meant to showcase the tangled reality of what I witness on both sides of the border. A stark reality of a border wall that juxtaposes serene landscapes and austere architecture, through a form that displays both sublime beauty and grave darkness as it now stretches endlessly, east to west and across the Chihuahua desert.I invite people to experience the border wall up close, from above and from far away.
My intent is to evoke compassion and to end complacency about the immigration crisis by
giving viewers a face to the human cost of the unrelenting migrant crisis and to illuminate the moral and social divisiveness occurring at this time in history.
I hope to inspire many to examine the symbolic, sociocultural, racial, humanitarian, economic and ecological impacts of the on-going immigration situation and to spark bipartisan dialog about legal, fact-based solutions when all sides seem to be obscuring the truth.
If people don’t care, what hope does the world have?
THE WALL
I am a child of the border
Through this lens I see
I am driven
To photograph The Wall
That has ripped through a centuries-old
Paso del Norte—Pass of the North
Through my lens, I bear witness to the Wall and all it has come to represent
A rip
A tear
A gash
Broken families
Broken friendships
Broken journeys
Broken land
Broken cultures
Broken nations
Broken souls
Broken promises
Broken trust
Broken dreams
Broken hearts
I search for the light to shine through
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