Capture El Paso 09 started with a simple idea: lots of folks take lots of pictures of the El Paso area — many of which would be worthy of publishing in a fine-art, coffee-table book. 

Knowing that thousands of photos would be submitted, the question was then posed: how do we pick the best from the rest? The answer was genius. We put the editing power in the hands of the people. Local people. People that know the El Paso area. People just like you. We asked photographers, doctors, union workers, musicians, moms, right-handed people, pants-wearing folks or anyone from any walk of life to vote for what they considered to be the photos that best capture the El Paso area. From more than 9,000 photo submissions to the pages of this book, 727,919 votes helped shape this hardcover book. It’s something that’s never been done before: publishing by vote.