Border Towns: Living with the Cartel

In interviews, Deakins has praised Webb’s use of colour and complex framing, while director Villeneuve has said: “We were inspired by the work of Alex Webb, a photographer Roger likes for his composition and use of shadows, silhouettes, and colors”
Deakins has cited Webb as a direct influence on the sequence where Emily Blunt’s character crosses from the American city of El Paso into the third-world chaos  of the Mexican border town Juárez.


“Transposing the seething, colourful, almost suffocating aspect of the city,” he said in an interview, “whilst contrasting it with the completely desert landscape of the American side”
Webb was originally unaware of Deakins’ interest in his work, calling it “a total surprise — and an honor”. But having seen Sicario, he has also noticed the influence of his border photography in the film, recognising how the filmmakers contrast the hidden world of nocturnal crossings with barren shots of expansive desert.
 
Subscribe to the British Journal of Photography for the best stories in contemporary photography delivered to your door every month.