Al río / To the River

Over the past several years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with the artist Zoe Leonard on a photographic work called, Al río / To the River.

The finished work, which consists of around 400 photographs by Zoe and a publication in two volumes, a volume of which I edited, has begun to find its way in the world. An exhibition of Zoe’s photographs is currently on view at MUDAM in Luxembourg, another exhibition will follow at the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris later in 2022, and the book we made is now available in Europe and will soon be available in North America.

For Al río / To the River, Zoe photographed the Río Bravo / Rio Grande between Ciudad Juarez / El Paso and the mouth of the river at the Gulf of Mexico. Over this stretch, which is roughly half the river's length, the river is made to serve the purpose of being an international boundary and also is subject to a number of restrictions and controls by various interests and jurisdictions. Over this stretch, the river is also used to restrict and control a number of additional flows, north and south, including the movements of people, wildlife, agricultural and manufactured goods.

I am very excited to share this book with the public for many reasons. All of the texts appear in three language: English, French and Spanish in a beautiful design by Joseph Logan. The images were printed beautifully. And the text volume is full of extraordinary entries by an astonishing group of contributors.

I hope you’ll purchase a copy of Al río / To the River. It features a volume of Zoe's wonderful work and a volume of contributions by: C.J. Alvarez, Ariella Azoulay, Cecilia Ballí, Carolyn Boyd, Remijio "Primo" Carrasco, Alfredo Corchado, Dolores Dorantes, Darby English, Álvaro Enrigue, Catherine Facerias, Nadiah Rivera Fellah, Josh T. Franco, Esther Gabara, Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, Angela Kocherga, Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Elisabeth Lebovici, José Rabasa, Yuri de la Rosa, Cameron Rowland, Inocencio Lugo Ruiz, Chris Taylor and Land Arts of the American West, Roberto Tejada, and Karla Cornejo Villavicencio.

I am honored to have worked alongside Zoe, who is an astonishingly gifted, accomplished and thoughtful artist, and also happy to say that she is among my best and closest friends. I’m also honored to have worked with this wonderful group of contributors.

I want to thank Suzanne Cotter, formerly of Mudam and now of The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, for her commitment to the work, the book, and everything that went into them; Nicola van Velsen at Hatje Cantz for years of friendship and support on this and many other projects; my beautiful wife and partner, Caitlin Murray, who is a genius; and the Graham Foundation for a generous grant which supported the book's production.

Tim Johnson, April 27, 2022