Borders Within a Border

Photographer Monica Lozano captured images of people around the world determined to gain their liberty in a new country by creating unique and inventive ways to cross the border and be free.

Lozano, originally born in El Paso, Texas and raised in both El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, is currently featuring six of her 18 photographs from the series entitled Borders at a photographic exhibition in Mexico City entitled Todos Somos Migrantes (We Are All Migrants).

The photographic exhibit, Borders (which will be displayed at the Consulate General of Mexico in El Paso this spring) reenacted the methodology each individual used to break a barrier at the border.  Lozano said she first became interested in photographing the subject after learning how one resident of Juarez attempted to immigrate into the States by stuffing himself into a car seat. It was after three months she spent researching her subjects and learning their stories, was she was able to bring them together in a studio in Spain.

While not all attempts are successful to break the borders, Lozano said all of her subjects were successful in traveling to Spain where she shot the entire series of 18 photographs. “I found it interesting that there were these huge borders throughout the world, yet in this one country, in this one place, all of my subjects were allowed to enter.”

Whether is be to stuff oneself in a suitcase or a car seat, you can read more about this story in the January/February issue of The Art Avenue on sale at The El Paso Museum of Art.