JTF (just the facts): Published in 2025 by Eriskay Connection (here). Softcover (16.5 × 9.5 cm), 144 pages, with 45 black-and-white reproductions. Design by Rob van Hoesel. In an edition of 500 copies. (Cover and spread shots below.)
Comments/Context: In Border Documents, Arturo Soto turns his lens toward the liminal spaces of Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, crafting a deeply personal yet quietly political meditation on memory, geography, and the emotional residue of place. The project is rooted in the recollections of Soto’s father, who came of age in these twin border cities during the 1950s and 1960s. Soto revisits the sites of his father’s formative experiences, photographing them in their current state, often empty, unassuming, and steeped in a haunting stillness. The book’s title, Border Documents, suggests a bureaucratic or forensic approach, but Soto’s treatment is anything but clinical.
Soto, a Mexican photographer, writer, and educator, brings a rich academic and artistic background to this project. His previous photobooks In the Heat (2018) and A Certain Logic of Expectations (2021) similarly explore the intersection of personal experience and urban space, often through a lens of quiet observation and spatial critique. His approach is both documentary and poetic, combining understated black-and-white photographs with narrative fragments that evoke the ordinary, everyday moments that shape lives but rarely make headlines.
Border Documents is very small in size, immediately feeling intimate and somewhat unassuming. The title, in a bold geometric font, takes over most of its soft cover, with the letters extending into vertical lines mimicking a border fence. Throughout the book, the photographs are paired with texts, providing biographical and historical context. The layout is clean and restrained, allowing the photographs and texts to breathe. The sequencing is deliberate, guiding the viewer through a geography of memory that feels both specific and universal. The flaps on both sides open to reveal ID documents belonging to Soto’s father, along with additional studio portraits from various years. Overall, the book feels exciting as an object.
Soto grew up in Mexico City, but would often visit the border with his family, his father’s stories and jokes adding color to his understanding of these twin cities. In this book, Soto returns to his familial roots, guided by the stories his father told him growing up. The book is structured chronologically, starting in 1954, and is filled with Soto’s father’s stories and anecdotes. These recollections of neighborhood rituals, first jobs, youthful romances, an encounter with President Lyndon B. Johnson, and cross-border commutes are paired with contemporary photographs of the places where they occurred. There are shots of various street corners, building facades, bus stops, grocery stores, and often it is not immediately clear which side of the border they depict. The result is a layered narrative that oscillates between past and present, memory and materiality.
One spread pairs a photo of La Nueva Estrella grocery story and the story of his father, who worked there in 1966. He recalls a musician who stopped by, purchased breakfast, and ate it right at the counter; he also played songs on his guitar, adding excitement to the daily routine. An image of the Benito Juárez National Memorial in El Paso illustrates a story of when the father was selected to represent the youth of Juárez at the ceremony marking the return of the long-disputed Chamizal lands. The final entry is from 1981, the year his father decided to close his law firm and move to Mexico City with his family and his newborn child, to shield him from the vices and limitations of Juárez.
Soto’s photographs resist the sensationalism often associated with the United States/Mexico border situation. Rather than depicting scenes of violence or political spectacle, he focuses on the mundane, the overlooked corners where life unfolds quietly. This choice is not apolitical; it is a subtle rebuttal to reductive media narratives that flatten the complexity of border life. As Soto notes, biographies are geographies as much as they are histories.
Soto’s images are quiet and understated, almost meditative, yet they carry the weight of lived experience. The absence of people in the photographs creates a sense of stillness, inviting the viewer to imagine the lives that once animated these spaces. This approach aligns with Soto’s broader artistic philosophy, which favors subtlety over drama and seeks to reveal the emotional undercurrents of public space.
The two-thousand mile long US/Mexico border has consistently attracted the attention of photographers. Dorothea Lange documented scenes along the southern border in the 1930s; Richard Misrach photographed the physical walls and the objects left behind by migrants (here); Alex Webb explored the complexity of borderland culture; and most recently, Felipe Romero Beltrán captured the lives of those waiting for cross northward (here). The border region has an immense impact on both countries, and Soto’s book is an excellent contribution to this complex conversation.
Border Documents is a sharp and thoughtfully crafted photobook that challenges dominant narratives about the US/Mexico border. Through its quiet images and heartfelt stories, it offers a counterpoint to the noise of contemporary discourse, reminding us that meaning often resides in the margins.
Collector’s POV: Arturo Soto does not appear to have consistent gallery representation at this time. Collectors interested in following up should likely connect directly with the artist via his website (linked in the sidebar).
