Geography of Disappearance: Migrant Deaths on the US/Mexico Border

« The United Nations has identified the U.S.–Mexico border as the deadliest land migration route in the world. Thousands of people have died along its 1,900 miles of desert and mountain terrain, forced into increasingly perilous landscapes by U.S. policies of “prevention through deterrence.” Many are never recovered; their bodies are absorbed by the wilderness.Using autopsy reports, humanitarian records, and law enforcement data, I locate and photograph these sites of disappearance. Through experimental darkroom processes, I produce images that embody the violence and erasure experienced by migrants. These photographs function as acts of remembrance while confronting the political systems that sustain such loss. »