Border in Focus

For many years, the divide between the U.S. and Mexico went unmarked, with people and animals passing freely over it. The first fences went up in the early 20th century, when the U.S. government put up barbed wire to prevent cattle from wandering out of the country.

Today, the border features about 700 miles of human-made barriers—a patchwork of concrete slab walls, chain-link fences, and steel slats. Almost all of those dividers were built in the past two decades, in response to concerns about people crossing into the U.S. without permission. Last year, President Donald Trump directed federal funding toward building more barriers.

Ekansh visited both sides of the border during his travels. The people he met were eager to share their stories, he says. 

Near Antelope Wells, New Mexico, he talked with a border agent whose patrol area was so isolated that he rarely saw people. In a town in Texas, a woman gave Ekansh an impromptu four-hour tour. “She shared her story of how she crossed the border illegally at the time and struggled to make ends meet,” he says. “She won my heart.”

Ekansh published a book of his photographs, The Great Divide: A Journey Across the US-Mexican Border. He also exhibited his pictures at the National Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, Texas.

He has since gone on to document other controversial borders around the world, including the heavily armed boundary between North Korea and South Korea. 

The teen has given public speeches about his border experiences. He enjoys sharing the insights he has gained. After all, Ekansh says, every single journey teaches him something new. “Borders are so much more than just areas of political conflict and hardship,” he explains. “They are also places of trade, commerce, beautiful landscapes, culture, language, and exchange of ideas.”