John Annerino, famed photographer of the Amerian Southwest, portrays the astonishing beauty of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and contrasts those with images of the conflict that threatens to destroy them.

These 1,956 miles through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California on the U.S. side and Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California Norte on Mexico's side are the beautiful, rugged, blood-stained borderlands that once lured conquistadors, missionaries, scalp hunters, bandits, smugglers, pioneers, and colonists from Spain, Mexico, and the United States.

Annerino canoed the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo del Norte through the legendary Big Bend Frontier, walked treacherous immigrant trails like Arizona's "Camino del Diablo" (Road of the Devil), explored borderlands jaguar country on foot, and came to know the resilient people who live, work, and cling to the traditions on both sides of the border. Along the way he chronicled his perilous journeys through this "geography of chaos," capturing in remarkable photographs and evocative essays the stunning landscapes whose fragile environment is threatened by today's politics.

"John Annerino is one of the handful of photographers with a real empathy for the West. His work has an edge to it, reflecting the sheer size and power of his subject--a subject he treats with respect and love. This land, which is so much a part of the American psyche, now threatened by pollution, by the spread of human settlement, and by exploitation, is as raw and exciting in Annerino's work as it is in our mind's eye."--"Newsweek"