• Stefan Falke
• Documentary filmmaker Tino Varela of Heroica Nogales.

If you haven't had a chance to see Brooklyn photographer Stefan Falke's photographs of the Mexico border region curated online on Forward Thinking Museum, please go to the website to see Falke's interpretation:

This long term project documents cultural activities in what used to be some of the worlds most dangerous cities along the US/Mexican border. I photographed artists along the entire 2000 miles long divide to show the vibrant cultural side of a region that is usually portrayed by the international media with the sole focus on violent crime. The high security steel fence erected by the US over most of the 2000 miles long border did its part to create a physiological and physical barrier. This had particular significance to me ever since I moved to New York — probably because I am German and because I have lived with a wall dividing Berlin and my country until 1989.

What I particularly liked about his project are the people he captured in Nogales, Sonora — some wonderful artists we met and wrote about in a story in December 2011 on a new arts collective and the work they are doing — documentaries, murals and paintings.

However, while our heart is partial to Nogales and the images and people he captured there, Falke's photos show images that defy Brewer-manipulated stereotypes from one side of the border to the other.