El Paso 120: Edge of the Southwest

Mark Paulda, accomplished photographer and wandering wayfarer, doesn’t just showcase scenery in El Paso 120; he makes a powerful statement: “El Paso is not at the edge but instead at the very center of some remarkably amazing landscape.” Paulda subverts the notion that El Paso is merely a desert city in the middle of nowhere by taking his audience on journeys to striking destinations within a 120-mile radius of the border city.

Alongside photographs of mountainous locales like the Hueco Tanks, Paulda includes photos of such variety that some might not believe these locales are within a two-hour drive of El Paso. The breathtaking White Sands of the Tularosa Basin are only ninety-five miles to the north; the untouched rivers, delta, and lake of Elephant Butte, merely one hundred and twenty miles away. Paulda has captured these and many more stunning settings in gorgeous color.

By capturing the magnitude of these sublime landscapes with aerial shots, and bringing viewers to the heart of each scene with ground shots, Paulda reveals the grandeur of a terrain that, for many of us, has been off the map.