Description
A brass plumb bob descends into the sand like an instrument of certainty, dividing two small ancestral adobe homes, carved “U.S.” and “MX.” The image reduces the border to its most elemental gesture: a line imagined, measured, enforced, and inherited. Within the Declaration project, the work reflects on the Mesilla Valley and the political transformations that reshaped it across centuries, from Indigenous homeland to Spanish and Mexican territory, disputed borderland, and U.S. possession. The bright blue field and toy-like scale create a deceptive simplicity, while the suspended weight suggests the gravity of surveying, treaty-making, and national claim. What appears to be a precise boundary is also a fragile construction - one that separates people, histories, languages, and memory across a landscape that long preceded the line.
Diorama was handmade by the photographer.
Part of the "Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country" series.
Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
Limited to 10 prints (any size) and 2 artist proofs.