Picture Perfect Polarization

It seems to me there is no resolution in sight for our border issues. I find the more I read, the less I understand and the more I search for answers, the more complicated the issues become. I don't see these issues as black and white as the sides have seemed to divide themselves. There is more to these issues than aligning with the philosophies of the Minutemen or tree hugging liberals. And so I felt at a loss. In an attempt to spark my interest in writing about this topic , I decided to turn to the arts for inspiration.

A good artist friend of mine, whose opinion on anything artistically related I value strongly, told me about a photography exhibit at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art called The Border Film Project/El proyecto fronterizofotografico. The exhibit was created by three men in an attempt to show the disparity among the two perspectives on the border issues; those of the Minutemen and the migrants. They gave disposable cameras to various groups of Minutemen and migrants and instructions on how to mail the cameras back to the creators. The results? A compilation of over 2,000 truly realistic portrayal of the ongoings at the Arizona/Mexico border that is like nothing I have seen.

The exhibit is set in a room of dark gray painted walls, which is in stark contrast to the walls of exhibit itself of a matte white. Snap shot size photographs, with a few larger versions, scatter the walls of the enclosure, in the style of a family photo album. This is almost essentially what the exhibit is, except the different points of view become so glaringly obvious even without the use of captions or titles. The center of the exhibit is a walled off space that runs a short film about the project, showing the creators explaining in both English and Spanish, what they were asking of the camera holders.

What is so mesmerizing about the photos are their honesty. Some of the photographs are of remarkably high quality and it would be difficult to say whether or not they were professionally taken. They are varied, ranging from photographs of a pair of grotesquely blistered feet, a man jumping a border wall, joyous group snapshots, and portraits of the camping life of the Minutemen. The simplicity of the exhibit and the photographs themselves tell an objective story like nothing else you'll get from the media or professional artists. There is no agenda, it is just simple, visual documentation that may not shed any light on issues up for debate, but offer an honest portrayal of real stories.

The exhibit is located at SMOCA at

7374 East Second Street

Scottsdale , AZ 85251

Phone: 480-994-ARTS

Email: smoca@sccarts.org

Web: www.smoca.org

The exhibit runs through Sunday January, 28.

For an interview on KJZZ, NPR News Station, go to http://kjzz.org/news/arizona/archives/200609/borderfilm