Scenes from the Arizona Section of the U.S.-Mexico Border

The international border areas in Arizona have captured the attention of the world as President Donald Trump attempts to fulfill his campaign promise of a "big, beautiful" wall between the United Stated and Mexico.

Over the last several months, I toured the Tohono O'odham reservation and other border zones in Arizona, capturing some of the scenes, and the sentiment of the people, before the potential changes come.

Visitors to these areas are greeted with some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world — but also to the reality of poverty and border strife. Where open land should rule, rusted metal lays in ugly lines, dividing two nations that have never fully trusted each other.

In the middle is the Tohono O'odham Nation, the second-largest Native American reservation in the country, behind the Navajo Nation. It's the size of Connecticut and home to about 10,000 people whose estimated per-capita income is less than $9,000.

Since the 1990s, border security has transformed the O'odham land into a militarized zone in many places, and many tribal members have been corrupted by the temptation of easy cartel cash.

Trump's wall is unthinkable to the O'odham people, but tough choices lie ahead with a Republican administration that aims to take border security to a new level.