How an AP photographer captured an urgent scene at the Mexico-U.S. Border

AP Photographer Gregory Bull has been covering the U.S.-Mexico border for more than 30 years.

On this frigid February night, his aim was to show the urgency of the situation for another group of men trying to cross into America.

Here he explains how he made this extraordinary image.

Why this photo?

Arriving up in the mountainous border area near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif., it was immediately obvious the situation was dire: about two hundred people sat huddled against a pelting rain and frigid winds, ill prepared for the approaching nightfall and even colder temperatures. There was a collective unease, a real fear as to what the next 24 hours will hold for them after crossing into the United States from Mexico.

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As groups of women and children were parted off from the men and led by U.S. Border Patrol agents to vans to begin their processing in facilities, those left behind began to appear even more unsettled. Worried they’d have to spend the night on that frigid mountain, many searched through the trash and items left behind for protection from the elements.

I wanted to find a way to show the approaching darkness, the men enveloped in the terrain, and the reason they can’t just simply go walk off and find somewhere warmer to be. A border patrol vehicle had its red and blue flashing lights on, and I was trying to time the frames for when they were bathed in red, which lent an urgency to the scene. I was hoping to show both Border Patrol, the men and some sense of the beginning of nightfall all in one frame.

I saw the Border Patrol agent raise his hand to direct the group of men to wait there, but I wasn’t sure I had a frame where his hand had cleared the mountain ridge behind until I got back to my computer.

How I made this photo

I had already shot pictures of this line of men and this Border Patrol agent, and I knew he would occasionally raise his hand to make it clear he wanted them to wait there.

Right now, in our area of the border, we are seeing groups of people from all over the globe crossing, so the agents can’t rely too much on spoken language. In this group, there were men from China, India, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Colombia and elsewhere.

So, I just got lower than the agent, to his side, and tried to time the red lights splashing out over the group of men with his gesturing. The wind was howling, and my fingers had gone mostly numb from the near-freezing rain and wind, so I didn’t dare check to see if I had the frame since I couldn’t really manipulate the camera buttons too well at that point – I had to wait until I got back to my computer.

I just kept at it, hoping that my perseverance would wear down the averages against me in getting it all to line up.

Why the photo works

I think what I like most about photography, is the way a picture can hint at something without trying to explain it from A to Z. The very best photos sometimes leave the viewer with an unanswered question, or simply a feeling. Whereas video and text in journalism often have the vital role of wrangling complicated issues into concrete meaning, photos often hint at the feeling of a place or situation.

I felt like this picture was my attempt at touching on the large, complicated issues of immigration and border security through light, color and composition. I liked the sweeping arc across the middle of the picture separating light and dark, and the splash of red.

I’ve been covering the border between the United States and Mexico for nearly thirty years, first as a staff photographer on the newspaper in Brownsville, Texas, and mainly as an AP photographer based both in Mexico and the U.S.

If I’m honest, I’d say I’m pretty unsuccessful at making a picture that can transcend the location. But every now and again, the elements come together for an instant.