Unusual among John Annerino's superb albums of the Southwest, this book is as much concerned with the people—Mexican and American, residents and tourists, border crossers and border patrolmen—as with the timeless and astonishingly beautiful land they pass through, and are in danger of destroying. In the footsteps of the early border surveyors who drew a 1,956-mile line through a "geography of chaos," Annerino canoed the Rio Grande/Río Bravo del Norte through the legendary Big Bend frontier; walked treacherous immigrant trails like Arizona's Camino del Diablo—the "Road of the Devil"; explored the realm of the borderlands jaguar on foot; and came to know the resilient people who live, work, and cling to traditions there. For more than 25 years, Annerino has clambered over rocks, hiked across parched expanses, descended into river canyons, and climbed treacherous ridges, risking his bones and even his life to record the elusive, ever-changing play of desert light on the dramatic landscapes of the Southwest.