Visual Representation of the US/Mexico Border Wall in the Media: A Reading the Pictures Salon

Please join us for a participatory, online salon examining photographic representation of the US/Mexico border wall in the media, a program by Reading The Pictures and Magnum Foundation, with the support of the Howard Chapnick Grant via the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. An expert panel will examine a set of nine photographs, derived from an extensive review of images published widely in the media, depicting of the wall, and will focus on how photographers and the news media are using imagery to frame the politics and the human rights issues surrounding the wall. Special attention will be paid to images published since the White House implementation of the “zero tolerance” policy, the family separation crisis, and “the caravan.” 

The panel includes: Teddy Cruz, Architect, Professor of Public Culture and Urbanism, Visual Arts, UCSD; Fonna Forman, Associate Professor of Political Science / Co-Director, UCSD Center on Global Justice; Erin Siegal McIntyre, Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism; Nick Oza, Staff Photographer, Arizona Republic; Griselda San Martin, documentary photographer focusing on issues of immigration and identity; Michael Shaw, Publisher, Reading The Pictures; and will be moderated by Anne Demo, Assistant Professor, Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn State University.

Thursday, Dec 6. from 7:30–9:00pm EST / 4:30–6:00pm PST

Viewers are encouraged to participate via a live chat and will receive a link to join the webcast upon registration.

Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Rosendo Noviega, a 38-year-old migrant from Guatemala, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America en route to the United States, holds his daughter Belinda Izabel as he walks along the highway to Juchitan from Santiago Niltepec, Mexico, October 30, 2018

Josh Haner/The New York Times

Eight border wall prototypes on the United States-Mexico border in Otay Mesa neighborhood of San Diego. Christoph Büchel, a Swiss-Icelandic artist, has proposed the group be protected as a national monument.

John Moore/Getty Images

A U.S. Border Patrol agent tries to tackle an undocumented immigrant in dense underbrush on September 9, 2014 near Falfurrias, Texas. He missed but the immigrant was later caught by a fellow agent. Thousands of migrants continue to cross illegally from Mexico into the United States, and Texas’ Rio Grande Valley has more traffic than any other sector of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Nick Oza/Arizona Republic

March 7, 2013. Rancher Jim Chilton offers water to Ivan Rebollar, 15, who said he’d been walking for two days without food or water since crossing the border. Chilton encountered Rebollar on Tres Bellotas Road, about eight miles north of the Mexico border. Rebollar, wearing carpet overshoes often used by drug smugglers, was walking south, towards Mexico, at the time. Rebollar, from a small town in Michoacan, Mexico, said he was looking for the Border Patrol to give himself up.

Griselda San Martin

The Salgado family poses for a portrait. Cesar Salgado and his niece Giselle are on the American side of the fence. Cesar’s parents, siblings, and daughter (third from right) are on the Mexican side. This is the first time Cesar has seen his daughter in 14 years.

Mike Blake/Reuters

Immigrant children, suspected of illegal border crossings, are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, June 18, 2018. It was not immediately clear whether these “unaccompanied minors” were apprehended without adults or separated from parents under a “zero tolerance” policy by the Trump administration. REUTERS/Mike Blake. NYT caption: Migrant children at a detention facility in Tornillo, Texas.

Guillermo Arias /AFP/Getty

Aerial view of Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the US, as the leave Arriaga on their way to San Pedro Tapanatepec, in southern Mexico on October 27, 2018. – Mexico on Friday announced it will offer Central American migrants medical care, education for their children and access to temporary jobs as long as they stay in two southern states.

John Moore/Getty

People stand in line to cross legally into the United States from Mexico on September 24, 2016 in Tijuana, Mexico. Securing the border and controlling illegal immigration have become key issues in the U.S. Presidential campaign.

Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Maria Lila Meza Castro, center, a 39-year-old migrant woman from Honduras, runs away from tear gas with her 5-year-old twin daughters Saira Nalleli Mejia Meza, left, and Cheili Nalleli Mejia Meza at the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, in Tijuana on Nov. 25, 2018.

A note on the selection:

"A year ago, Reading The Pictures was awarded the Howard Chapnick Grant from the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund to produce a live webinar analyzing the media’s visual framing of the US/Mexico border wall. With new developments in the story, that focus expanded to include family separation, and then the caravan. Over a thousand published photos from news wires and mainstream news and magazine sites were examined. Images were organized into themes, including: the Thickening Border; Pathways and Walls; Looking Through/Back/Out; Children; Protest & Power; and Cruel Looking. Ultimately, 9 photos––some familiar and some less so—were selected and determined to best speak to the themes, events, and representation in the media. Of the nine images, one each was also included by two acclaimed photographers, Nick Oza of the Arizona Republic and Griselda San Martin, who have been dedicated to covering the story and will be a part of the live panel."