ARTIST STATEMENT

I chose to photograph the border wall between San Ysidro in the US and Tijuana, Mexico where I live. I specifically selected a night and day shot based on the reality that the wall really never goes away. It’s a constant symbol of the division of lives. This view is from the Mexican side of the wall, which consists of twenty-foot high steel bars with steel mesh that extend 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean. Written on it are names and messages. The names represent loved ones. Did they cross? Are they alive? Will they come home? Some of the names are from the US Veterans that have been deported. There are messages of hope, messages of love, and messages of how unnecessary and unnatural the wall is on this physical beachfront. Visitors come from all over to see the wall in what is now called Friendship Park. The park hosts events on both sides of the border so that friends and family may be a part of significant life events like weddings, religious services, dances, and baptisms. The steel mesh wall that divides these two countries is difficult to see through. The only way to touch a loved one is by reaching through the mesh to touch fingertips.