Mexican Border Project Documents Those Who Make Art, Not War

In the years since Mexico, under former President Vicente Fox, declared war on the drug cartels of Mexico in 2006, most of the photojournalism from the border has focused on the inevitable violence. With more than 60,000 people dead and another 25,000 missing, such attention is warranted, and vital.

Yet there’s more to the border region than just gunfire and body counts. Stefan Falke’s ongoing project, La Frontera: Artists from the U.S. Mexican Border, examines the borderland’s flourishing arts communities with photographs of more than 170 painters, muralists, art promoters, museum directors and musicians.

“It’s a story as true as those about crimes and violence,” Falke says. “There are a lot of amazing cultural activities going on along the border, on both sides. Artists are the pulse of societies and they can have a tremendous positive influence on their communities.”

Falke, who lives in New York, was born in Germany. His interest in national borders stems from his experience growing up in the shadow of the Iron Curtain.

“We lived with a physical border dividing my country,” he says. “I was drawn to the U.S.-Mexico border after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Since then, the U.S.-Mexico border wall has been continuously growing. I wondered about all the bad news coming from La Frontera and had to check it out for myself.”

Falke’s first portraits of artists were made on a trip to Tijuana in 2008. He has since traveled to different parts of the border eight times. In 2012, he crowdfunded nearly $9,000 for the project.

The majority of his work has been made on the Mexican side in cities such as Tecate, Nogales, Ciudad Juarez, Mexicali and Nuevo Laredo. But he has also photographed in U.S. cities — most recently in Brownsville, Texas. During his time on the border — which Falke describes as “almost its own country, a region unparalleled anywhere, good and bad” — he has only felt unsafe once.

“There were hand grenades or other small explosives going off near my hotel in Matamoros one night. I literally fell out of my bed. This was the only time I thought I might be in trouble,” Falke says.

The rest of the time he’s been welcomed by everyone he’s approached.

“People are positively surprised that anybody would do what I do because most international photographers who come here want to shoot crime scenes or work on stories about the drug wars or immigration related issues,” Falke says. “The support from the artists in every city I have been to is just fantastic. Everybody I photograph recommends other artists to meet.”

One of Falke’s main goals with La Frontera Project is to create a bilingual and interactive website that presents the artists’ portraits and edited photo stories alongside their corresponding web-links, career information and activities. The site would serve as a hub.

“It could connect artists and art institutions along the entire border, on both sides, which each other,” he says.

Because the region is so vast he’s got no shortage of material and is excited to keep exploring both the major cities and smaller towns that dot the nearly 2,000-mile border between the two countries.

“I am having a ball working on this project. It took on its own life, and it is hard to quit,” he says.

Images and captions: Stefan Falke.

Source: http://feeds.wired.com/c/35185/f/661370/s/329e6264/sc/38/l/0L0Swired0N0Crawfile0C20A130C10A0Cstefan0Efalke0Eborder0Eartists0C/story01.htm
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