on the way to the wall

September, 2006, found me at the US/Mexico border. I went there to begin a project I had had in mind for awhile concerning militarized borders.I went there thinking about structure and appearance, in terms of ‘a border become manifest’.

I’ve spent time in occupied Palestine over the last five years and watched as Israel’s Wall in the West Bank grew. I watched from the first of the groundbreaking in late 2002 until the spring of 2005, my most recent trip, as this monster called a ‘security barrier’ cut it’s way through the orchards and groves, through the villages and through the heart of the people.

I would stand at this structure or drive by in a taxi and think; we think ourselves so civilized, so mature in the world and yet these are the answers we come up with to solve what we see as a problem. The problems we don’t even understand because we are trying to blame it on those affected as opposed to seeing how we ourselves participate, create the problem, largely are the problem.
It struck me as awesome the state of mind of those who abuse power.

When I returned to the United States, I began to research borders and different situations around the world where ‘first world’ mentality created lines in the sand that took form, were deadly, and at the same time being crossed by those willing to die for what lie on the other side. I choose to focus on the US/Mexico border, Israel’s Wall in Palestine and the Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Melilla in the north of Morocco.

and finally after more then a year of talk, i have made it to andalucia, the south of spain, in sha’ allah, melilla and ceuta after some days. i have no idea where i will be staying, how things will unfold, what the situation will be like in getting the images i think i desire, or what in the world i will do with the images once i have them (to name a few).

so seems the pattern of my life and so once again i find myself at the edge of the unknown and diving in head first. we’ll see how it comes out…