The Borderlands

Working on his own and with artist Marcos Ramírez ERRE, Arizona photographer DAVID TAYLOR envisions the US-Mexico border, both as it is, and as a state of mind.

- Deborah Ross

Whenever David Taylor heard talk of a “big, beautiful wall” along the US-Mexico border during the 2016 presidential campaign, he immediately pictured its pitfalls—its simplistic premise and its impracticality in a region so geographically, politically and socially diverse. Taylor, who has been immersed in border-related photographic projects spanning several years, probably knows the line of demarcation from Texas to Tijuana about as intimately as any civilian can know it. He once hiked 12 miles round trip to reach a rocky summit in the Tinajas Altas Mountains, where the ridge he followed crisscrosses the official border. He has encountered migrants, landowners and park rangers. And his regular presence along the border eventually allowed him to navigate it without drawing much attention from US Border Patrol agents and other officials.