a photoblog by ben fredman

Sunday, March 16, 2008

March Against the Border Wall

This week, the Dallas Morning News flew me to the Rio Grand Valley in Southern Texas to follow a group marching over 120 miles along Texas border towns to protest the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and the building of a wall along the US-Mexico border. I spent two nights and one full day documenting this group.

They were an awesome bunch of people, most of them teachers in Brownsville who decided to do the march over their spring break. Each night, they were greeted by host churches who provided food and shelter along the way... sometimes in church buildings, other times in camp grounds on the Rio Grande. Every night they would read excerpts from Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi for inspiration. I crashed on floors and marched with the group, being embedded for a few days. The biggest challenge was running, crouching, driving, walking backwards, sweating, limping, etc., as I took pictures of the group while were actually marching.

This was one of the coolest assignments I've ever had in my life. All this in my first two weeks here in Dallas. I love it here. I'm learning so much while being pushed and mentored along the way. This ran 1A yesterday with a slideshow online. I shot video for this story too.



































15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lovely photographs!!

cheers form barcelona!

Amanda said...

Sweet. Really sweet. Sounds like a bad-ass internship so far. Congrats.

Tully said...

I'm Ben, I freak out and call people even though I have nothing to worry about. I'm Ben. This is a great start dude, keep it up!!!!!!!

I am Matthew Nager said...

I think the photos are great. The front page looked sweet as well and I liked the video too. Was that your first?

So we gonna meet soon or what?

Liz said...

wow, seriously great stuff! sounds like it's going to be a good spring, judging from your first two weeks.

... said...

looks like u nailed it in typical Fred-diesel style. on a side note: i just bought a plant called the "Wandering Jew."

caty said...

i second tully's comment.

Ikuru said...

Nice stuff. Good luck there.

Anonymous said...

Hello Fredman,
Could you please contact me at: pluu@progressive.org.

I’m from The Progressive magazine and we would like to possibably publish a few of your photos.
Thanks.

andreita said...

what an amazing experience. the photos do it justice, sir.

Anonymous said...

I think this is posababababably the greatest most baller shit in the world...posabubaly

ben fredman said...

OK anonymous John Tully. Job? You? Get? Maybe?

Unknown said...

Ben, it was truly a pleasure working with you over the course of this nine-day march. You did a great job of capturing the people and places we were advocating for as we protested the proposed border wall. I look forward to checking your work on this site in the upcoming months; for more information on the walk and on immigration issues on the border, my blog is at http://smartborders.wordpress.com

::: Eddie QuiƱones ::: said...

What a great assignment. Looks like your internship is off to a very strong start.

My internship is going well here in suburban Chicago (to answer your question you wrote me last week).

Drew Nash said...

Strong images Ben, sounds like a kick ass internship. Tell Will what up for me.

illtown

I am a freelance photographer and educator specializing in documentary, editorial and travel photography based in St. Petersburg FL.
All Images © Ben Fredman, The Free Lance-Star, The Dallas Morning News, The Star-Ledger, The Muskegon Chronicle and The Post Register.