albradenphoto's blog

While visiting the High and Dry Show at the Centennial Museum in El Paso, I had the opportunity of seeing work border photography by Bruce Berman. Berman committed himself to photographing the border area of El Paso and Juarez in the 1980′s and has been on it ever since. He has made is mark in this area, on both sides of the border with an understanding of the people earned over time. The images are powerful and made with compassion and involvement with his subjects. An activist photojournalist, Berman now is a professor of journalism at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Previously, he was a professor of photography at University of Texas at El Paso for many years.

Bruce Berman's images show a great involvement with his subjects in El Paso and Juarez.

The exhibit, Border Stories, runs till March 13th at UTEP

All of the images come with a long – from the heart – caption that puts photo, subject and place in knife edge context for the viewer. Much of the work is right at the border and highlights the struggles of colonias in Lomas del Poleo, the the women of Juarez to the border fence.

Border Sisters, 11-7-07, Shows a meeting of sisters from Anapra,NM and Colonia Anapra, Juarez at the border fence.

Black Crosses on the FBA, Segundo Barrio, El Paso, 2007 pays tribute to the killings of young women in Jauarez.

If you are in El Paso and interested in border issues, humanitarian issues and photography, this is a must see exhibit. For more info on Bruce Berman and his work, see www.border-blog.com. A book is due out soon – stay tuned.

The High and Dry Show is in it’s tenth year, sponsored by the International Center for Arid and Semiarid Land Studies at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. The show was held from November 29, 2009 to January 15, 2010 at Texas Tech. Following that photo exhibit, a special selection was made for display at the Centennial Museum at University of Texas at El Paso. The Centennial Museum specializes in the natural and cultural history of the Southwest.

Centennial Museum at UTEP features the natural and cultural history of the Southewest.

Entrance to the El Paso Centennial Museum at UTEP features a painting of Spanish conquest.

Natural history exhibits are upstairs.

Two large downstairs galleries housed the High and Dry Exhibit featuring photographs of the people and lands of the arid Southwest. Included were two of my photos of cloud formations in the landscape near Van Horn, Texas. During my travels between Austin and El Paso, this area is often rich in sky and landscape images.

My two cloudscape photos from Van Horn were among those in the High and Dry exhibit.

The Tenth Annual High and Dry Exhibit filled two galleries of the El Paso Centennial Museum at UTEP.