"Exodus, 1983"Exodus, 1983Don Bartletti
Media: B&W Selenium Toned Silver Gelatin (vintage print)
Having just stepped across the border, migrants from Mexico and Central America carry little more than their hands in their pockets as they walk across “The Soccer Field”, a legendary gateway from Tijuana to Otay Mesa, California on May 21, 1983. The international boundary line a few yards behind them is delineated by little more than a few strands of barbed wire and a steel cable pressed into the mud by hundreds of people bounding out of Mexico. As night falls, they will try to slip past U.S. Border Patrol agents who are in the hills of San Ysidro a mile or two ahead.
Home»Exhibitions»Previous»DON BARTLETTI: Looking Back at Today: 45 Years on the U.S./Mexico Border»Exhibition Gallery
Looking Back at Today
45 Years on the U.S./Mexico Border
Artist Statement:
Human migration is the never-ending news story that’s been fossilized, painted, sculpted, and storied since the dawn of humanity. Now, it’s archived with a camera. Over my little blip of time on Earth, the subject has remained the heart and soul of my photojournalism career.
In the late 1970s when I first gazed at multitudes of people along the San Diego/Tijuana border, it was an exodus of astonishing proportions. With successive frames and interviews came the realization that every person crossing over carried the burden of persistent causes and uncertain consequences. Migration for survival and opportunity was playing itself out in a big way.
I’m not a cultural anthropologist but I believed early on that our descendants should see this movement of people that brings new neighbors, languages, food, art, entertainment and cultures into our country, state, cities, towns, schools, fields, factories and homes.
As a young man with a shoulder bag of manual cameras and film, I never imagined I’d feel like my own descendant, gazing at my decades-old black and white images as if they were from another generation.
On the walls of this exhibition, the past and the present meet. The never-ending news story continues. If you’re tempted to ask, “How can such things be?”, I confess that after 45 years on the U.S./Mexico border, I ask myself the same question.
Don Bartletti
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45 Years on the U.S./Mexico Border
Artist Statement:
Human migration is the never-ending news story that’s been fossilized, painted, sculpted, and storied since the dawn of humanity. Now, it’s archived with a camera. Over my little blip of time on Earth, the subject has remained the heart and soul of my photojournalism career.
In the late 1970s when I first gazed at multitudes of people along the San Diego/Tijuana border, it was an exodus of astonishing proportions. With successive frames and interviews came the realization that every person crossing over carried the burden of persistent causes and uncertain consequences. Migration for survival and opportunity was playing itself out in a big way.
I’m not a cultural anthropologist but I believed early on that our descendants should see this movement of people that brings new neighbors, languages, food, art, entertainment and cultures into our country, state, cities, towns, schools, fields, factories and homes.
As a young man with a shoulder bag of manual cameras and film, I never imagined I’d feel like my own descendant, gazing at my decades-old black and white images as if they were from another generation.
On the walls of this exhibition, the past and the present meet. The never-ending news story continues. If you’re tempted to ask, “How can such things be?”, I confess that after 45 years on the U.S./Mexico border, I ask myself the same question.
Don Bartletti
CLICK ON IMAGES TO VIEW IMAGE DETAILS
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