Photograph is from the series, Tierra Brava, which was done with the support of a Fulbright Fellowship in 1997 and 1998. Drawing inspiration from the pulp comic of the same name, Tierra Brava traverses a personal psychological space within the color of a place mired in contradictions; the U.S. – Mexico border. It is a place that is in a constant search for its own sense of identity, juggling the traditions of culture and history of the interior with the pleasures and promises of prosperity and a better life of its northern neighbor. It is not Mexico and not the United States, but rather something and somewhere in-between.

Paul Turounet is an interdisciplinary artist working with photography, books and installation. Using his own photographs, archived images and ephemera, text, and found materials, his practice is driven by a curiosity combined with exploratory research to conceptually develop subjective documentary narratives that are informed and shaped by personal and collective histories in such places as the U.S.-Mexico border and sites of the American experience.