Mexican photographer Alejandra Platt-Torres shares her powerful images of the people, the border, and the landscape between Arizona and Sonora in a new exhibit at Arizona State Museum (ASM) on the University of Arizona (UA) campus.
A World Separated by Borders runs at ASM from March 8 to October 19, 2013. The show is co-presented by the University of Arizona’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry.
About the Exhibit
Through twenty-one compelling, black and white photographs, A World Separated by Borders explores the humanity, the economies, and the circumstances that both unite and divide the people of Arizona and Sonora.
Focusing on five themes, the exhibit represents more than four years of the photographer’s documentation of the Arizona-Sonora border beginning just after September 11, 2001. The themes are: the diversity of immigrants, the perilous journey through the desert, human repatriation, the history of the border, and the ecological impact of immigration.
In addition to twenty-one framed photographs, the show features a multi-media installation with more than sixty additional Platt images, and, lining the museum’s front walkway from University Boulevard to the main entrance, an outdoor installation of photographs depicting material culture left in the desert by migrants -- clothing, water bottles, food containers, personal hygiene items, etc.
About the Photographer
Professional photographer Alejandra Platt-Torres divides her time between two homes in Hermosillo, Sonora and Tucson, Arizona. “I am a migrant,” she explains, “I am the third generation in a family of migrants. My great grandfather, Frederick Platt, was born in New York City. For me, coming and going between the United States and Mexico is normal.
exhibit that creates a conversation about the peoples, the cultures and the issues across the Sonoran Desert which straddles the borders of two countries. Alejandra Platt-Torres is one of the most accomplished photographers of contemporary Mexico. An acute transnational observer of border dynamics, Alejandra’s stunning black and white photos evoke the strength, the struggles and the sorrows of the migrant people and reflect the lives of those who made it across and those who didn’t. Her work captures the human condition at many different levels.”
Location
Arizona State Museum is located on the University of Arizona campus, just inside the Main Gate at Park Avenue and University Boulevard in Tucson. 1013 E. University Blvd. Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Information courtesy: Arizona State Museum - University of Arizona
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