Round Trip and Endless Border
THE WORK
Round Trip: An Endless Border is a long-term documentary project exploring migration along the U.S.–Mexico border, primarily between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. Begun in 2021, the work follows migrants through different stages of their journey: arriving on freight trains, waiting in shelters and camps, crossing the Rio Grande, moving through concertina wire, and confronting the physical and political infrastructure of the border.
Rather than focusing only on moments of crisis, the project looks at migration as an ongoing human experience shaped by uncertainty, policy changes, enforcement, exhaustion, hope, and adaptation. The photographs examine how borders affect individual lives while also documenting a landscape in constant transformation, where movement continues despite walls, surveillance, militarization, and shifting immigration policies.
The project is part of a broader body of work on migration, deportation, and life along the U.S.–Mexico border, developed through long-term documentary practice on both sides of the boundary.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER
David Peinado Romero is a Mexican documentary photographer from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, working between Mexico and the United States. His practice focuses on migration, borders, violence, displacement, and the ways political and social forces shape everyday life. Through long-term documentary projects and editorial assignments, he approaches these subjects from a personal perspective informed by his experience growing up and working along the U.S.–Mexico border.
His ongoing project Round Trip: An Endless Border examines migration between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, following the changing realities of migrants as they move through trains, the Rio Grande, border walls, camps, and increasingly militarized landscapes. His work has also documented deportation, communities in northern Mexico, and contemporary life in Michigan.
Peinado is a recipient of the Alan Hagman Photojournalism Grant and his photography has been recognized by PX3, the ND Awards, Festival della Fotografia Etica, ReFocus Awards, and the Americana Photo Award. In 2026, he was selected for The New York Times Portfolio Review, the Eddie Adams Workshop, and the Hamburg Portfolio Review. His photographs have appeared through international news organizations and editorial outlets, including Reuters and Anadolu Agency.