Richard Misrach, American, born 1949
Agua #1, near Calexico, California, 2004
This photo taken by Misrach shows a lone flag waving in the wind, alerting immigrants to a water station during their treacherous, border-crossing voyage; the water barrel is likely a life-saving source in an otherwise unforgiving and barren desert. This photograph is one of eighty works featured in Border Cantos, a gallery created by photographer Misrach and sculptor/composer Guillermo Galindo that uses sound, sight, and salvaged belongings from immigrants (alive and deceased) to humanize the controversial and challenging issue of immigration. Using a combination of photography, music, and sculpture based on possessions lost and found across the desert, Border Cantos gives us a haunting portrait of struggle, sacrifice, and salvation that captures raw human determination in the face of political and environmental instability. Label by Tara Vasanth