“Declaration/Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country” is a photographic still-life project created in response to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the continuing question of what that document means in the Borderlands. Rather than treating the Declaration as a settled historical artifact, the work approaches it as an active, unresolved promise: a statement of idealism that has always existed alongside conflict, exclusion, expansion, hope, and contradiction. Through symbolic objects arranged with the clarity of product photography, the project examines the American experiment with democracy as something still being measured, claimed, divided, repaired, and argued over.
The three images use constructed objects as small monuments to large national tensions. A white pennant planted in a brick of soil suggests territory, possession, and the fragile authority of claims. A plumb bob suspended between markers labeled “US” and “MX” turns the border into both a measurement and a wound, invoking the long history of land, governance, and identity in a region shaped by Spain, Mexico, the United States, and Indigenous presence. A heavy stone pressing down on layered colored paper beside the word “equal” addresses the pressure placed on the Declaration’s most famous promise, asking whether equality has been upheld, deferred, burdened, or only partially imagined.
Rooted in New Mexico and the Texas Borderland, this project offers a non-traditional view of the founding of the United States from a region whose American experience did not begin on the East Coast and did not follow the familiar national myth. Here, the ideals of the Declaration arrived through conquest, treaty, territorial redefinition, cultural survival, and contested belonging.
“Declaration/Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country” uses minimal objects, vivid color, and borderland symbolism to ask how the original promises of the United States have played out over time, and how those promises continue to evolve in a place where nationhood has always been layered, bilingual, disputed, and unfinished.
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THE PROPERTY LINE
A brass plumb bob descends into the sand like an instrument of certainty, dividing two small ancestral adobe homes, carved “U.S.” and “MX.” The image reduces the border to its most elemental gesture: a line imagined, measured, enforced, and inherited. Within the Declaration project, the work reflects on the Mesilla Valley and the political transformations that reshaped it across centuries, from Indigenous homeland to Spanish and Mexican territory, disputed borderland, and U.S. possession. The bright blue field and toy-like scale create a deceptive simplicity, while the suspended weight suggests the gravity of surveying, treaty-making, and national claim. What appears to be a precise boundary is also a fragile construction - one that separates people, histories, languages, and memory across a landscape that long preceded the line.
Diorama was handmade by the artist.
Part of the "Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country" series.
Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
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TERRITORY
A square of Mesilla Valley earth is staged as a small, contested territory: red soil, scattered stones, and a white flag of surrender rising from a fragile stem. The image speaks to a landscape that has been named and renamed across centuries—Indigenous homeland, Spanish frontier, Mexican territory, disputed borderland, and finally part of the United States after the political reshaping of the Southwest. Here, surrender is not shown as a single event, but as a recurring condition imposed by maps, treaties, surveys, armies, and ownership. The white flag does not resolve the conflict; it marks what is lost when land is claimed by those with the power to declare it theirs. In this miniature scene, the Mesilla Valley becomes both a place and a witness: beautiful, vulnerable, and still carrying the weight of every border drawn across it.
Diorama was handmade by the artist.
Part of the "Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country" series.
Nikon Z8, NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
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WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS
A heavy stone rests on a layered stack of pastel paper, its weight pressing against the word “EQUAL” placed quietly at the base. The image turns the Declaration Of Independence’s most famous promise into a physical burden: beautiful in language, fragile in practice, and unevenly carried across generations. In the Mesilla Valley and the wider borderlands, ideals of equality have moved through Indigenous, Spanish, Mexican, and American histories, often arriving as declarations before becoming lived realities. The stone suggests the force of law, memory, and resistance; the paper suggests the documents, treaties, amendments, records, and claims through which rights are granted, denied, revised, and contested. What appears delicate is also persistent. Beneath the weight of history, the promise of equality remains visible, unfinished, and still demanding to be upheld.
Diorama was handmade by the artist.
Part of the "Declaración: Objects Of An Unfinished Country" series.
Three needs are laid upon humanity: food for the body, spirituality for the journeying soul, and love, which alone gives light against the vast and star-strewn dark. Through these we are made whole.
Vigas, the wooden beams of New Mexico’s Pueblo people, survived colonization. In the centuries that followed, languages, ceremonies, and ancestral knowledge diminished, while the architecture endured.
Atop the rolling peaks of the Eastern Sierra stand trees older than Plato’s Republic, bearing silent witness to humanity’s turmoil. Can they survive the technical horrors we have wrought?
This is kind of a mosh pit of different little rules that can have a great impact on your photographic art.
Seriously, if you see something cool, take a picture. Don't say "I'll get it on the way home" or "I'll plan another trip." Nope, you take the photo then and there.
Here are some examples of why would should snap it when you see it.
This is a real road sign in California. The road that goes through Kern Canyon in Kern County is very narrow with steep sides. And for whatever reason, cows graze on these steep canyon slopes. Well, sometimes a cow will fall and go splat on the roadway. No joke.
It is amazing what you can find in the Mojave Desert. This was an abandoned car left on the side of Highway 395, south of Mojave. Someone took the time to set it on fire and then tagged it with grafitti. The car was gone within a week. I snagged a great photo because I stopped when I did.
This is the best example I have of why you should snap when you can. I happened upon these wooden sculptures just standing in this field in the middle of nowhere in the Sequoia National Forest. These pieces of art are no longer there because they succumbed to a wildfire the next year. My next trip to Sequoia would have been too late.
Then there is this thing.
WWII tank.
On the side of the road.
In the fog.
In McMinnville, Oregon.
By the next day, the fog was gone along with the tank.
Dark clouds in the background with a brightly lit object in the foreground is always a winning shot. Instant WOW photo!
Thunderstorm over Lake Isabella, California.
Fierce storm rolling over the Sierra Nevada mountains, north of the Manzanar Japanese Internment Camp Historical National Monument cemetery.
This was my ride for most of the summer that year. We got down just in time for this monster storm to blow through.
See dark clouds? Time to whip out the camera. Every time. Unless it has a tornado attached to it. Yeah, run the other direction for those things.
Always believe in yourself. Photography mainly is an artform for YOU. Yeah, it might be cool for others to appreciate it, but photography is a gift for YOU to use as YOU see fit. To benefit YOU first.
Here are some photos that I have sold and I have no idea why anyone ever bought a copy.
I used to repair aircraft as a day job and this airplane had a fuel leak. So I took a photo and sent it to the owner to show him the leak. And yes, someone bought this from Adobe Stock.
I sold this to a climate scientist who wanted to use it for a science conference he was presenting at.
This image of Lake Powell was licensed for use in the book, "America From The Air." Here is a secret, it was a 3 megapixel image.
Lastly, I sold this to a gay newspaper in Los Angeles.
None of these are that exceptional, but they all found a home.
Mojo Zoo's Photo Class: Fine Art Of Black And White
Black and white photography can be shockingly beautiful because it removes the distraction of color and makes you focus on the shapes and structural elements of a photo.
If there is a master of black and white imagery, that person is Ansel Adams. If you REALLY want to go down a rabbit hole on photographic theory, do a deep search engine dive on Ansel.
If you are serious about black and white photography, the photo below will be pinned above your bed.
I might just be a fan boi?
The below images are a great example of how subtracting color out of a photograph can create something more powerful in black and white.
These next images were taken at the Very Large Array National Radio Observatory in New Mexico. You might recognize this place from the movie Contact staring Jodie Foster and from the book by Carl Sagan.
Here is the wide shot...
The next step is to get a detail shot...
Then we use Lightroom to strip out the color.
The differences are striking. Here they are side by side.
Even though the original image is mostly color free with the exception of some blue hues, it is a stunning difference.
Here are some other examples of black and white photos showing the exceptional quality of the art of black and white.
Me and my boo holding hands at the Grand Canyon.
The Coyote Gods of the Chalfant Petroglyph Site in California.
Organ Mountains, Las Cruces, NM
Close-up of the wing of one of the last surviving Ford Tri-Motor airplanes.
Joshua Tree National Park. The black sky is amazing. This photo was shot in color and turned to black and white in Photoshop Express. The downside is some of the artifacts from the digital conversion. You can see it a bit around the Joshua Tree in the center.
And lastly, me doing the best Anseling I could muster up in Yosemite Valley.
Regardless if you are shooting on film or shooting digitally, there are some tricks you can do to enhance the contrast of photos. The skillful use of red filters (plus darkroom and software techniques) can really help craft a better work of art.
Here are some examples of what I am talking about at Ship Rock in New Mexico. Mostly an overcast day, but I think the process brought out the best image.
Here is the original, unfiltered photo...
Now the same shot but with a Tiffen red filter in front of the lens.
Now let's take the original photo and convert to black and white and do the same to the red image. Remember the red image is done in camera.
The image on the right is just digitally manipulated to create a black and white image. The image on the left was digitally manipulated but from the red filtered image. You can see the difference an optic filter has on black and white photography.
The red filter will turn blue skies very dark and highlight clouds shockingly bright. Here is an example from Capital Reef National
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what can be explored with black and white photography. Go for it!
If you thought there was a lot of choices for optical filters, wait until you dip a toe in digital photo apps. There are lot to choose from. Here are the biggies.
Adobe has three apps that are great for photography; Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge.
Photoshop needs very little introduction and the word is now used as a verb. But there is a mobile version of Photoshop titled PS Express. It allows for quick editing of photos with countless presets, tricks and fun stuff.
Lightroom is the gold standard for photo editing; saturation, tinting, color correction and every single thing you can imagine to adjust in a photo you can adjust in Lightroom.
If you have an iPhone, it comes preloaded with an app titled Photos which will do all the basic things that Lightroom will do, but it is free.
The above is an example of before and after and how colors can be manipulated in Adobe Lightroom or Apple's Photos app.
Bridge is another Adobe app that is great for organizing, cataloging and tracking photos. It is especially useful for managing photos for upload to stock photography sites. It works seamlessly with Photoshop and Lightroom.
In terms of online galleries, I suggest Wordpress. They have a low-key free plan that is awesome.
Flickr is a bit old school, but great for curation. So is Google Photos and Dropbox. If you are on Team Apple, there is always iCloud.
If you want a social media solution, I have to recommend BlueSky. There is an app titled Flashes that will set up your BlueSky account to look like Instagram. Bluesky is setup to where billionaires can't control or steal your content.
With the new announcement from Zuckerberg about how Meta will begin to allow people to lie, misinform and propagandize you, I would avoid all Meta Apps for photography use; Facebook and Instagram. Plus Meta apps have been stealing the work of artists to train their AIs without compensation for the artist. Protect yourself and flee.
Don't even get me started on the toxic, Nazi hate-pit known as Twitter. Yes, I know it goes by a different name, but as long as Elon Musk deadnames his daughter, I am going to deadname the shit out of Twitter. Fuck him.
And of course there is always Tumblr. ❤️
If you are into film photography, you can always use your phone as a light meter, plenty of apps for that.
Another fave of mine is an app titled Find Your Ansel. It is a navigation app to show you the locations of where Ansel took his photos.
EXIF Viewer is also helpful and self explanatory.
Lastly, PhotoPills is your photography planning app. It helps you PLAN your photos ahead of time… So you’re always at the right place at the right time to capture the best photo possible. Very cool app.
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