Perry, David. Bordertown. Text & Drawings by Barry Gifford. Photographs by David Perry.

Chronicle, 1998. 1st edition, 1st printing in hardcover with custom made 4-mil polyester jacket. Like new with just a trace of a removed price label on cover.  Gifford and Perry explored the towns on the Mexican border with the United States, including Agua Prieta, Mexico, across the border from Douglas, Arizona.  They found crime, poverty, drugs, and prostitution. The photographs and stories of the putas (prostitutes) are illuminating concerning the lifestyles of these working women. 

David Perry is an American fine-art, commercial, and subculture photographer based in California, renowned for his evocative, gritty documentation of underground hot rod culture, motorcycle customizers, and vintage-style pinup art. A graduate of the Art Center College of Design, Perry built a successful career in fashion, advertising, and editorial photography before pivoting in the early 1990s toward capturing the rebellious, gritty visual aesthetic of American car and motorcycle subcultures. Utilizing dramatic black-and-white analog film, high-contrast lighting, and raw, candid framing reminiscent of classic documentary photographer Danny Lyon, Perry captured the textures of grease, chrome, and speed in acclaimed photobooks such as Hot Rod (1996, in collaboration with author Barry Gifford), Bordertown (1998), Hot Rod Pin-Ups (2005), and Hot Rod Kings. His commercial and artistic influence extends across album covers, lifestyle campaigns, and high-profile visual projects for clients including Fender and Apple, establishing him as a pioneering visual historian of modern Americana, custom mechanics, and alternative pinup portraiture.

Bordertown (1998) is a collaborative multimedia work featuring text and ink drawings by author Barry Gifford paired with black-and-white photography by David Perry, published by Chronicle Books.

Overview & Setting

• Geographic Focus: The book presents a gritty, evocative portrait of the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, capturing the unique, fluid culture and tension of twin border cities such as Tijuana/San Diego, Ciudad Juárez/El Paso, and Nuevo Laredo/Laredo.

• Format: Bordertown weaves together Gifford’s prose vignettes, poetry, and line drawings alongside Perry’s raw, documentary-style photography.

Key Themes & Artistic Style

1. Noir Realism & Marginal Characters: Drawing on Gifford’s signature noir sensibilities, the narrative vignettes follow characters on the fringes of society—drifters, wrestlers, migrants, neon-lit lounge singers, and small-time hustlers navigating the border zone.

2. Visual Contrast: David Perry’s high-contrast, candid monochrome photographs document the stark physical environment: cantilevered fences, dusty cantinas, neon signs, and unguarded human interactions along the line dividing two nations.

3. Liminal Identity: The work frames the border not simply as a political boundary, but as a distinct, living third country—a realm defined by collision, passage, survival, and overlapping cultural identities.