As a record of the land that straddles a river as it carves two countries apart Up River intimately documents a region and its people. From a distance, the border appears simple and stark. Mexico on one side, the United States on the other. It's so obvious that most of us take the separation for granted. One can point to it on a map and declare "Beginning" or "End." But up close, gaps appear. Lines which were previously so permanent and consequential begin to bend and blur until eventually they distort beyond recognition.
The first phase of this ongoing project was produced during a solo road trip beginning in Brownsville, TX where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico and culminates in El Paso/Juarez, the historic Northern passage where the river diverges from the border and heads up toward its headwaters nestled in the San Juan Mountains. The photos capture the faces of the people who live in the region, the tragic events which shape their lives and the immense beauties of the landscape which surrounds them. All revealed by the relentlessly baking borderland sunlight.
