The Place Where Flags Wave,
Volume 1 and 2 (2019/2020)
The Place Where Flags Wave is a serial publication that activates government pictures from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection official archives hosted on Flickr.
Volume 1 of the series looks at the intersection of frontier mythologies and the militarization of the border. Heroic agents gallop to victory across the South Texas Plains in iconic poses of colonial power. The horse becomes the dirt bike and the helicopter, as military technology is increasingly implemented to exert control over the movement of people and goods across an arbitrary line drawn in the sand.
Volume 2 of the series looks at the border as an intersection of market demand, human suffering, and political posturing. Draconian policies of restriction create an environment where drugs are concealed in the hollows of truck tires or on desperate human bodies and women and children contort themselves to hide in car trunks—permissible victims in a duplicitous economic system.
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The Border Patrol Flickr page contains more than 13,000 images taken by public affairs staff using professional camera equipment and field agents with cell phone cameras, ranging from staged events to candid moments, political gestures to prized intercepts. Scrutinizing these border patrol pictures will not in itself change the situation on the border. I believe looking critically, particularly within our current political context, opens space for one to grapple with their own position in relation to the web of events, places, and people articulated by the government’s camera.
Book
5.5x8.5 in. (Half Letter)
Full Color
Edited by Jason Reed
Typography by M. Wright
Published in 2019 and 2020 by Victory in the Wilderness Museum
Edition of 100 for each Volume
Available Here
Volume 1 and 2 (2019/2020)
The Place Where Flags Wave is a serial publication that activates government pictures from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection official archives hosted on Flickr.
Volume 1 of the series looks at the intersection of frontier mythologies and the militarization of the border. Heroic agents gallop to victory across the South Texas Plains in iconic poses of colonial power. The horse becomes the dirt bike and the helicopter, as military technology is increasingly implemented to exert control over the movement of people and goods across an arbitrary line drawn in the sand.
Volume 2 of the series looks at the border as an intersection of market demand, human suffering, and political posturing. Draconian policies of restriction create an environment where drugs are concealed in the hollows of truck tires or on desperate human bodies and women and children contort themselves to hide in car trunks—permissible victims in a duplicitous economic system.
---
The Border Patrol Flickr page contains more than 13,000 images taken by public affairs staff using professional camera equipment and field agents with cell phone cameras, ranging from staged events to candid moments, political gestures to prized intercepts. Scrutinizing these border patrol pictures will not in itself change the situation on the border. I believe looking critically, particularly within our current political context, opens space for one to grapple with their own position in relation to the web of events, places, and people articulated by the government’s camera.
Book
5.5x8.5 in. (Half Letter)
Full Color
Edited by Jason Reed
Typography by M. Wright
Published in 2019 and 2020 by Victory in the Wilderness Museum
Edition of 100 for each Volume
Available Here
