alejandro cartagena

Suburbia Mexicana Book Available in Mexico and Europe

2011-12-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

Finalmente están disponibles mis libros de Suburbia Mexicana en México vía mi sitio web y paypal. Hay una versión estándar y una firmada con una foto 8x10 edición de 100 incluida http://alejandrocartagena.com/books/ Espero se animen a apoyar este proyecto y que a su vez disfruten de este libro que me costo 4 años de mi vida.

living in subrbia

2011-11-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

these are some of the several short videos i did for the landscape as beaurocracy project. it was much fun doing moving images.

a little about the project: landscape as bureaucracy is an exploration of the underlying structures surrounding the dream of owning a house in xxi century mexico. for the past 3 years i have documented several aspects of this constructed dream; the public institutions involved in the acquisition of houses in mexico (infonavit), the people´s pursuit for their mortgage loan, the bureaucrats who demand requisites and decide who gets or not awarded a loan, and the private companies and their merchandising strategies to lure people into debt. in between all of this, stands the case of my older brother david, who for the past 8 years has been pursuing a loan for a house through all of the above parties. symbolically, it is the power and conviction of people’s dreams; both of the soon to be homeowners and of the public and private bureaucrats that pushes the natural landscape to become an urban and suburban space. it seems to me, that landscape as an idea is as much the actual scenario as it is the social, political and economical forces that conform and eventually transform it.

new commission work: contract city

2011-10-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

more images here

ABSTRACT: LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA about the battle over the city of Costa Mesa’s budget. Costa Mesa has no apparent center: if there’s a there here, it’s unclear where. What served as a civic nucleus, until recently, was City Hall. The five-story glass-and-white-brick box is home to many of the municipality’s four hundred and ninety-seven employees. But City Hall is now under fire from the budget-slashing wing of the Republican establishment, in a war of words and pink slips reminiscent of an earlier anti-union era, when the Pinkertons battered the Wobblies with fists and clubs. Local budget deficits are a national problem. Cities are where people will actually feel the results of the argument over the country’s fiscal future, and American cities are running deficits of some fourteen billion dollars a year. One glaring contributor to the problem is growing pension payments. Cities can’t look to their states for help: a recent study estimated that there was a $1.26-trillion funding gap in state workers’ retirement benefits, countrywide (with California responsible for an eighth of that). Read more

alejandro cartagena | One Life Photos 2011

2011-08-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

If you have a chance take a look at my images from suburbia mexicans here.
alejandro cartagena | One Life Photos 2011

death in arizona: tin dirdamal

2011-07-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

tin, a beloved friend of my is pursuing the conclusion of his new project through kickstarter. please lend him a hand and help this project find completion. more information here

diego kuffer

2011-07-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

an interesting approach to collage, fragmentation and movement. the portfolio here

mauricio alejo

2011-07-25T11:34:00.000-07:00

i remember seeing mauricio present his work back in 2004 at an event called fotoguanajuato. i had never seen anything like it. his videos and photographs are crafted in very simple ways, making things look so "natural" and "clean". this attracts me very munch making me over and over want to be fooled by what i am seeing. a link to bransch with a lot of his work.

Мехико как прообраз будущей Москвы

2011-07-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

the article here

sweet friday

2011-07-22T11:22:00.000-07:00

Noorderlicht 2011 photofestival. Metropolis - City Life in the Urban Age.

2011-07-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Participating Photographers Noorderlicht 2011

More than 80 photographers from all over the world are participating in Metropolis - City Life in the Urban Age.

Abir Abdullah
Evan Abramson
Martin Adolfsson
Anas Al-Shaikh
Mehraneh Atashi
Pablo Balbontín & Luca Marinelli
Giorgio Barrera
Matteo Bastianelli
Nina Berman
Peter Bialobrzeski
Jodi Bieber
Julio Bittencourt
Kendrick Brinson
Giacomo Brunelli
Gregory Buchakjian
Estan Cabigas
Alejandro Cartagena
Fracilins Castilho Leal
Carlos Cazalis
Tiane Doan na Champassak
Rasel Chowdhury
Xavier Comas
Carole Condé & Karl Beveridge
Alain Delorme
Manal Al Dowayan
Stephen Dupont
Brad Farwell
Andreas Gefeller
Ugnius Gelguda
Reinier Gerritsen
Christoph Gielen
Ashley Gilbertson
Paul Gofferjé
Nadja Groux
Kai Uwe Gundlach
Pawel Jaszczuk
Jian Jiang
Gabriel Jones
Nadav Kander
Yannis Karpouzis
Gareth Kingdon
Thomas Kneubühler
Katrin Koenning
Laura Konttinen
Marcus Koppen
Maros Krivy
Ikuru Kuwajima
Selvaprakash Lakshmanan
Gina LeVay
Sebastian Liste
Martin Luijendijk
Sayed Asif Mahmud
Yves Marchant & Romain Meffre
Massimo Mastrorillo
Andreas Meichsner
Cecile Mella
Jean-Marc Meunier
Ivan Mikhaylov
Guillaume Millet
Andreas Müller-Pohle
Michael Najjar
Matthew Niederhauser
Simon Norfolk
Sherman Ong
Louie Palu
Max Pam
Ohm Phanphiroj
Olivier Pin-Fat
Dana Popa
Martin Roemers
Edith Roux
Carlos Sanchez & Jason Sanchez
Hans-Christian Schink
Darren Soh
Elian Somers
Will Steacy
Niels Stomps
Franky Verkickt
Munem Wasif
Shen Wei
Hans Wilschut
Michael Wolf
Devin Yalkin
Pablo Ziccarello
Kim Zwarts

the chain project

2011-07-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

'The Chain' is the latest project curated by Stuart Pilkington, (curator of The Alphabet Project and the 50 States Project).

Stuart invited 107 photographers from around the globe to participate in the project at the beginning of 2011.

And in February 2011 each photographer submitted a title/instruction to inspire a photograph by another person in the project. The photographers were connected like links in a chain. They were asked to respond to the title set by the person directly behind them. The title they set was directed to the photographer directly in front of them. see the whole chain here

'Empathy' (set by Paul Plews)

'It seems I've lost my way' (set by Alejandro Cartagena)

yann gross. a photo project that helps out

2011-07-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

support the project here

everything is a remix

2011-07-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

Everything is a Remix por partipirate

by Kirby Ferguson

suburbia mexicana on Esquire Russia

2011-07-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Мексиканец Алехандро Картахена (Alejandro Cartagena) сделал серию фотографий одного из новых пригородов Монтеррея.

link

de seguridad y otras mamadas. ocupamos más gente hablando.

2011-07-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

antony crossfield

2011-07-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

Long time no see!! Life has been hectic and the seductiveness of the immediacy of Facebook has made me to stay away from this blog. But I will not give in! so here is a great and refreshing photographer to look at to start off the summer posts. Finally something interesting being done with the 360 panorama shtick.

©antony crossfield

for real? 35mm digital roll?

2011-04-04T21:42:00.001-07:00

a link here

francisco larios

2011-03-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

no link to a personal page. but do a google search and you can find info on this mexican artist. a cv here

the best art work in the world by ruben gutierrez (update: and the best song in the world, tenacious d) (2nd update: the greatest man that ever lived)

2011-03-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

the best art work in the world from ruben gutierrez on Vimeo.

nuestra mirada

2011-03-24T18:04:00.001-07:00

un buen lugar para encontrar fotografía latinoamericana.

Lost Rivers Portofolio at Places: Design Observer

2011-03-24T13:29:00.000-07:00

As Places photography editor Aaron Rothman, who curated both portfolios, says, "Lost Rivers depicts places poised between loss and beauty, acknowledging the price of urbanization while seeking to reclaim a sense of connection with these natural spaces."
The whole article here

Founded 28 years ago by architecture faculty at MIT and Berkeley, Places is an interdisciplinary journal of contemporary architecture, landscape and urbanism, with particular emphasis on the public realm as physical place and social ideal. In 2009 Places published its last print issue and moved online as an open-access journal in partnership with the Design Observer Group. In this new format, Places publishes peer-reviewed scholarship as well as topical commentary, observations, reviews and visual portfolios, with two new articles every week.

amazing

2011-03-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

parallel relationships

2011-03-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

i really enjoy how contemporary images relate to past images. sometimes conscious sometimes not. the case is how we as photographers find our images touching things contained in past images and how inevitable this is today. for me these images from nadar and roger ballen relate in some weird way.

cool video from vimeo festival

2011-03-10T08:33:00.000-08:00

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

a series of unfortunate events/michael wolf

2011-02-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

flipping through the world press photo of 2010 i was amazed and enthusiastic about finding michael wolf´s street view images "a series of unfortunate events". Is it maybe the simplicity of the project or the "of course" factor that makes these images so strong? yes and yes. but it is also the idea, at least to me, of what photography is becoming; a way to encounter a deeper self, not by taking pictures, but by thinking about the images we look at at show to others. a big praise to this body of work.

to start the year a solo exhibition in guatemala

2011-01-16T17:29:00.000-08:00

to end this year, gregory halpern and seth lower

2010-12-31T16:17:00.000-08:00

this year was a painful but fulfilling year. friends died, friends where born. met new people found old people. in the end i am happy it is over.

amongst the many things learned and explored this year, books were one of those things that really made me want to excitingly continue photographing. the possibilities that a book opens up has let me once more explore my new projects in ways i hadn't thought of. so to end this year of posting i wanted to present two artistas whose works involve very witty editing and picture making. happy new year then. 2011 will be great.

gregory halpern

seth lower

mmm

2010-12-31T16:07:00.000-08:00

the american wall

2010-12-12T10:12:00.001-08:00

The FotoVisura Portfolio Review & Consultation

2010-12-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

The FotoVisura Portfolio Review & Consultation is a dynamic session in which each photographer presents their work in one-on-one sessions with each of the participating editors. The editorial team includes the Visura Magazine staff as well as a carefully selected group of leading photography editors. Each editor will focus on a specific aspect of the body of work (such as the selection, sequence, or artist's statement) - in addition to giving their overall perspective. Through this process, each photographer will receive a highly productive 3 hour intensive workshop with a variety of perspective and approaches from leading professional editors.

Date: December 18th, 2010
Morning Session: 9:00am-12:00pm
Afternoon Session: 1:00pm-4:00pm
Maximum Capacity: 8-10
Cost: $250.00
Location: Tribeca, New York City
Reviewers: Amber Terranova/Photographer & Photo Editor of PDN Magazine, James Estrin/ Co-Editor of The New York Times Lens Blog and Senior Staff Photographer, Graham Letorney/ Curator of 100 Words on Photography for the NPR's Picture Show Blog, Lauren Schneiderman/ Editor of Visura Spotlight, Adriana Teresa/ Editor of Visura Magazine.
more info here

eunice adorno/ fraum blaum

2010-12-11T23:29:00.000-08:00

además de ser una gran artista eunice es una super amiga que últimamente le han llovido los laureles como el premio benitez de la feria del libro de guadalajara. su super trabajo sobre las mujeres de comunidades aisladas es LA NETA. aqui ponga algo del trabajo y seguro veremos más de ella y sus proyectos en un futuro próximo. orale con el nuevo documentalismo mexicano. su página y trabajo aquí.

una buena rola y un buen video para el fin de semana

2010-12-11T23:14:00.000-08:00

El Guincho - Bombay from CANADA on Vimeo.

a little late news but Aperture Announces 2010 Portfolio Prize Finalists

2010-11-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

the five finalists Kathryn Parker Almanas, Pre-Exisiting Condition; David Favrod, Gaijin; Anne Golaz, The Hunting Game / Chasses; Julian Röder, Lagos Transformation; and Jordan Tate, New Work. more info here

twin flames

2010-11-21T10:56:00.000-08:00

collective show in nicaragua

2010-11-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

Ai Weiwei

2010-11-11T19:57:00.000-08:00

link link link

take your picture with a real indian

2010-11-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

"Copy-Paste" - Recreating Andreas Gursky (Google Earth Remix)

2010-11-11T17:28:00.001-08:00

INTERVIEW IN AFTER IMAGE BY LISA UDDIN: ON LOST RIVERS AND OTHER MAN-ALTERED LANDSCAPES: A CONVERSATION WITH ALEJANDRO CARTAGENA

2010-11-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

intro for afterimage, journal of media arts and cultural criticism: The problem of imaging ecological harm is not getting any easier. Artists who have taken a documentary approach now seem almost quaint in their investments. Painters from the nineteenth-century Hudson River School, for example, gave audiences composite scenes of a romantic, indigenous wilderness on the cusp of industrial expansion. A hundred years later, in distilled photographs of western mountain ranges, lakes, and dunes, Ansel Adams expunged the human presence altogether, instead sacralizing nature. These ways of seeing are tricky in the face of contemporary environmental problems, largely because they register and reinforce certain binaries—nature/culture, city/country, human/nonhuman—that routinely collapse under the operations of advanced capitalism. How then to picture the damage wreaked by these operations? And how to picture it in ways that are sensitive to the enduring appeal of that which we call natural?

The landscape aesthetics of Alejandro Cartagena offer one possibility. Dominican-born Cartagena spent two years photographing the desiccation of streams and rivers in and around the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico. Entitled “Lost Rivers” (2007–08), the resulting series makes up part of Cartagena’s larger project on Mexican real estate development, which tackles the complexities of tract housing, home ownership, and inner-city decay. “Lost Rivers” is an integrated feature of “Suburbia Mexicana: Cause and Effect” (2006–09), a lush and moving testimony of the toll taken on ecosystems enmeshed in the region’s rapid growth.

Crucially, Cartagena’s art also represents a rediscovery of imagemakers featured in the watershed exhibit “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” Curated in 1975 by William Jenkins at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, and re-launched in 2009 for an international tour, the exhibit featured work by Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, and six others, and marked a radical turning point in picturing the American landscape. The New Topographers eschewed idealized treatments of nature by showing, with an understated irony, its presence as a constitutive part of the built environment. These sharply focused photographs took familiar elements of the landscape tradition—trees, mountains, deserts, waterways—and placed them in matter-of-fact conversation with the subdivisions, roadsides, industrial parks, and parking lots that stood by and around them. More central to Cartagena’s practice, however, is the extent to which their man-altered landscapes resonate with the current experience and effects of Monterrey’s sprawl and Latin American suburbanization more broadly.

stop motion graffiti

2010-11-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

"Yet other environmental threats — less visible, but potentially more devastating — often go largely unnoticed".

2010-10-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

This NASA satellite image captured the extent of red sludge spilled after a waste-retaining wall broke at the Ajkai Timföldgyár alumina plant in southwestern Hungary. Visible on the right side of the image — near the bright blue and orange reservoirs of the plant — is the point where the plant's retaining wall broke. The red-orange streak runs west from the plant for miles where the torrent of sludge flowed into a stream and inundated nearby towns, including Kolontar and Devecser. read the article at yale environment 360

read the whole story on the idea of photogenic disasters. I think this is a very good point being made. if we are to actually say anything about the world we live in (and not just inform, because that's why we have Google maps for -or so it seems-), we somehow need to open up the discourses behind our image-making and somehow make visible the invisible (culturally, politically, etc.)...literally

mauricio palos: mi perro rano

2010-10-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

mauricio has a new book out called mi perro rano. see more details here

weekend favorite Julian Röder

2010-10-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

some amazing images that portray the battle of subjectivity that globalization pushes and those who look for alternative views of our world. see the whole series here

"No, these are not battle scenes in the art historical sense. Even if Julian Röder does have a strong understanding of pouring the confrontational situations of crowds - their clustering and the bursting apart – into striking pictures. The old masters Altdorfer and Uccello come easefully to mind. What Röder shows is not the compacting of an historical occurrence; it is the immediate present. However, it is precisely because he helps himself to art - or more generally speaking, historical image - motifs that these photographs possess deeper intensity and permanence than a fifteen second take from the news. Because pictures are always pictures about pictures. We have them in our memory - more or less consciously - and incessantly align them with that which purports to be reality". Matthias Flügge

taylor glenn

2010-10-18T15:13:00.000-07:00

you can find some very beautiful portraits by talyor glenn here. he has a great sense of light and composition.

intense pizza

2010-10-11T13:29:00.000-07:00

more on faith-beliefs; natan dvir and john faier

2010-10-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

john faier

natan divir

christopher churchill and jose luis cuevas

2010-10-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

i really enjoyed looking at christopher churchill´s series american faith.

the documentation of faith seems something a bit off in a "less faith seeking world" but maybe it is the strangeness of people sticking to their beliefs what seems interesting to photographers. a mexican counterpart of the idea of faith as subject is jose luis cuevas and his exploration of the expressions of faith.

Marcarfoto escuela de fotografía tiene nuevo sitio

2010-10-03T12:45:00.000-07:00

visita la página aquí

the greatest photography is vernacular...

2010-09-26T15:10:00.000-07:00

Alec Soth and daughter Carmen show at Brighton Biennial

opening of interrupted landscapes at Champion Gallery

2010-09-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

champion gallery opened its space in austin this month with a excellent exhibition: interrupted landscapes, of which i am a part of with many other international artists. if you are in town, do stop by.

susan barnett/ a non portrait of a collective consciousness

2010-09-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

"Each one of these people reveal a part of themselves that advertises their hopes, ideals, likes, dislikes, political views, and personal mantras. They wear a kind of badge of honor that says "yes, I belong to this group not the other."

challenge our thinking

2010-09-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

"I believe that it’s imperative to challenge our thinking, particularly in more volatile and loaded landscapes whose narratives are frequently calcified by mass media interests. My work is not intended as a criticism of journalism (which is tremendously important). Rather, it operates within the open field of contemporary art, where the emphasis is not on the answers, but on the questions - not on the facts, but on what they add up to"...

Richard Mosse from a conversation over at conscientious blog

a great post

2010-09-26T08:53:00.000-07:00

thomas locke hobbs did a great post about his visit to Comodoro Rivadavia in Patagonia, Argentina. He explores the mundane with in comodoro's landscape, giving a grim but beautiful approach to it. his words:

"The story of how this neighborhood got built is emblematic of Argentina’s recent history. It was started in 1999 by a cooperative of professors from the nearby university. The mesa was leveled and foundations were poured. Then the crisis of 2001 hit. Their savings were frozen and then covered into devalued pesos. The project sat idle for years. In the last few years they were able to restart construction with loans and assistance from the current government. In return they were asked to paint the houses apple green, which is the visual branding of the current governor Mario Das Neves. The neighborhood sits on a prominent hill, clearly visible from the main highway leading into town. Das Neves is trying to position himself as a candidate in next year’s presidential election, so the advertising was surely important (...) Comodoro, honestly, is not a nice place. It’s a testament to what people will put up with to achieve a house, a car and a stable job".

read the whole post here

A comeback...

2010-09-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit(much) absent from this blog for various reasons that are just too long to mention here. But just a few day I received an email that made me want to get into the blogging mood again. I have to say, Facebook has become an enemy of my posting here, but I shall conquer. To start of this new enthusiasm, I want to post the work of a colleague with home Ive been sharing a lot of exhibition space lately: Domestic in Barcelona, NATURAE in Italy and just a few weeks ago Interrupted Landscapes in Champion Gallery in Austin.

Aleix Plademunt has been working with the idea of space for some time now and has created very thoughtful and witty images about how we construct it.

Mixing irony with cultural commentary, Aleix presents us with questions about a societies need for identification with land and icons.

He also has a great blog. See it here

opening in Italy

2010-09-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Opening of Pictures of the year international in Los Angeles

2010-09-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

Opening of Pictures of the year international at the Annenberg Space for Photography.

Participating Photographers:

* Philip Scott Andrews
* Guillermo Arias
* Nadia Benchallal
* Alejandro Cartagena
* Peter DiCampo
* Yvette Marie Dostani
* Danny Wilcox Frazier
* Toni Greaves
* Cathy Greenblat
* Mark Edward Harris
* Henry Jacobson
* Tom Leininger
* Karen Quincy Loberg
* Eric Lusito
* Amy Lyne
* Hector Mediavilla
* Claire Martin
* Alessandra Quadri
* Brijesh Patel
* Ray Ramos
* Jason Reblando
* Jerry Redfern
* David Taylor
* John Tully
* Munem Wasif

out of my hands tonight

2010-08-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

people of suburbia at the Bienal de fotografia in Mexico City

2010-08-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

ill be showing 8 images from people of suburbia at the Bienal de fotografia. it opens september 2nd. more info here

taller de paisaje urbano en MARCARFOTO

2010-08-15T15:20:00.001-07:00

"Mi madre, yo misma" de Vida Yovanovich

2010-08-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

border 2010

2010-07-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

Estare participando en la exposicion Border 2010, a two man exhibition at UTEP's Rubin Center, El Paso Texas. more info here

lost river became alive

2010-07-17T19:52:00.001-07:00

after hurricane alex

taller en marcarfoto

2010-07-14T08:07:00.001-07:00

leon levinstein

2010-07-13T09:43:00.000-07:00

“A good photograph will prove to the viewer how little our eyes permit
us to see. Most people only see what they have always seen and what
they expect to see. Where a photographer, if he’s good, will see
everything.” leon levinstein

more images here

irina rozovsky

2010-06-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

lovely images by irina. these are specially interesting to me right now. how can we create images that are so close to us and still become universal in a way?
see all her portfolios here

new housing scheme

2010-06-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Los principales organismos del sector habitacional en el País se pusieron de acuerdo y clasificaron las viviendas en seis tipos, según su valor en salarios mínimos.
Esto con el fin de hacer más eficientes las operaciones crediticias en el País y tener una mejor segmentación del mercado.
El acuerdo se hizo entre el Infonavit, la Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal, la Comisión Nacional de Vivienda, bancos, Sofoles y Sofomes, Fovissste, la consultora Softec y la Asociación Hipotecaria Mexicana.

2 Monterrey officials kidnapped

2010-06-15T19:26:00.000-07:00

Monterrey, capital of Nuevo Leon state, was traditionally relatively quiet in part because top drug traffickers parked their families there, taking advantage of the city's top schools and hospitals. But as the notorious Zetas gang fights to challenge the dominance of its onetime patron, the Gulf cartel, gun battles, kidnappings and other violence have spread.

In the first 4 1/2 months of this year, as many people were killed around Monterrey as in the two previous years combined. read the story here

new images from my between borders project..., an estimated 22,700 dead in drug related crimes

2010-06-15T18:24:00.001-07:00

the los angeles times has kept this part of its site up with information about the war on drugs in mexico. even though it is just a news oriented site, it is a place to see the magnitude of the social change this war has had on our land.

we live in a mexico that is somewhat very scary but still enjoyably livable. this project is an exploration on a rural lifestyle that is seen by me in an idyllic manner. these people are brave in attitude and i empathize with the idea of standing up for the space you love and in which you want to live.

"Though the project is based in the US/México border which has become a battle ground in the past months, I feel the urge to deconstruct the image of the somewhat stereotyped violent view of the border by investigating and representing the lifestyles of the people who decide to stay in between the turmoil and peace. In a way, it seems that my intent of escaping that view of the border is a subconscious romanticizing of a past (semi) calm urban life of which we have been deprived of as citizens of northern mexico".

Jeff walls Dead Troops Talk vs Regional Council of Basse-Normandie/U.S. National Archives: Photo taken on D+2, after relief forces reached the Range

2010-06-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

suburbia mexicana at bluesky gallery in portland

2010-06-13T20:36:00.001-07:00

Jonathan Blaustein

2010-06-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

I had a really good chat with jonathan about his project the edge of empire and where he is taking it. it is definitely an exciting series and worth a viewing.

emily shur

2010-06-08T18:54:00.000-07:00

I am back from two weeks of travel to Mazatlan to impart a workshop on urban landscape, to portland for a solo show and last but not least to centers review santa fe in new mexico. i will be posting some images from people i met whose work i liked and enjoyed chatting with.

emily shur is a very fun photographer whose work on japan titled shizenkan, seems to me to be a search for an understanding of space as an understanding of one's self. she also does really great editorial work.

Se presenta OjodePez Photo Meeting Barcelona, la nueva gran cita internacional de la fotografía documental

2010-06-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Se presenta OjodePez Photo Meeting Barcelona, la nueva gran cita internacional de la fotografía documental

solo show at bluesky gallery in portland OR

2010-06-02T11:07:00.001-07:00

ALEJANDRO CARTAGENA : "Suburbia Mexicana, Cause and Effect"

Encouraged by the Mexican government, developers in nine cities of the metropolitan area of Monterrey, Mexico, have taken advantage of the cheapest land available to construct new housing for sale to lower- and middle-income families. More than 300,000 new homes have been built in this region since 2001. Evoking traditions established by the New Topographics photographers of the 1970s and 1980s, photographer Alejandro Cartagena has in recent years been documenting this complex story of unhampered sprawl.

"Suburbia Mexicana, Cause and Effect" is comprised of five distinct parts, as seen here. Together, Cartagena’s images create a visual narrative of dramatic, wide-scale urban transformation. He captures the finished, vacant developments waiting to be inhabited, the older, deserted neighborhoods left behind, as well as the environmental impact of nearby rivers drying to a trickle to support growing populations. Through a combination of traditional landscape, abstract formalism, and documentary motifs, Cartagena invites the viewer into a montage of contemporary Mexican suburbia that is at once informative and beautiful.

DOMESTIC Struggle for domestic

2010-06-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

foward thinking museum, Rachel Wolff

2010-05-23T23:38:00.000-07:00

Suburban Sprawl

Turning his lens on the now-residential areas immediately outside of Monterrey, Mexico, Alejandro Cartagena elegantly documents the ways in which contemporary northeast Mexico – with its rows upon rows of boxy uniform houses – is starting to look a whole lot like post-World War II suburban U.S.A. more here

in mazatlan

2010-05-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

doing a workshop with the people of SIF. mazatlan rocks!

weekend favorite dalton rooney

2010-04-30T15:01:00.001-07:00

his site

anonimous portraits from a photographer in the municipality of teran...

2010-04-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

the past can be a dreadful thing...enjoy

2010-04-23T19:13:00.001-07:00

weekend favorite/xavier delory

2010-04-23T08:52:00.000-07:00

his page here

the viewer 5: topographic

2010-04-23T08:47:00.001-07:00

view the magazine here

opening of DOMESTIC in Spain

2010-04-23T08:39:00.001-07:00

link

pensar la ciudad

2010-04-01T09:06:00.001-07:00

Nada mejor para el aterrizaje del narco que una élite pagada de sí misma y fascinada con su propia imagen.

2010-03-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

¿Qué le pasó a Monterrey? La gran ciudad industrial de México, la echada para adelante, la que tuvo más desarrollo en los últimos 30 años, la de los ahorradores, los que encaraban al centro con la frente en alto, los que presumían tener controlada su seguridad, están hoy en la peor crisis de su historia. El narco tomó la ciudad y al inexperto gobernador Rodrigo Medina no se le ocurre mejor cosa que llamar a los ciudadanos a una manifestación, como si encabezar la marcha le permitiera trasladar su responsabilidad a otra parte. La explicación simplista es decir que la guerra al narco, la estrategia fallida de Calderón, está golpeando a la inocente e industriosa ciudad de Monterrey. Pero la descomposición social de la Sultana del Norte, como también es conocida, es anterior.

Los valores esenciales del Monterrey pujante de la segunda mitad del siglo XX se perdieron. La cultura del esfuerzo, el sentido de unidad y esa convicción de tomar el futuro en sus propias manos se fueron transformando en una cultura de consumo y desprecio a lo que no era como ellos, pensaron que el futuro lo tenían no solo ganado, sino merecido. La ciudad orgullosa se volvió vanidosa. No es gratuito que la crisis social de la ciudad coincida con la estrepitosa caída de la imagen del fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo, Marcial Maciel. La gran mayoría de la elite social del Monterrey pasó por las escuelas legionarias que formaron una generación insulsa, pagada de sí misma, volcada al consumo y la presunción, pero sobre todo alejada del pensamiento crítico. Nada mejor para el aterrizaje del narco que una élite pagada de sí misma y fascinada con su propia imagen.

Lo que le está pasando hoy a Monterrey le sucedió a Guadalajara en los años setenta y ochenta. La crisis de una generación que fundó su futuro en el pasado, que sentía merecerlo todo por su heredad, puso la cama a la llegada del narco y luego se acostó con él. El narco se vuelve "intolerable" cuando los muertos tocan a las élites. En Guadalajara tuvo que caer un Cardenal, en Monterrey dos estudiantes del Tec. En Guadalajara nadie se acuerda de los otros seis muertos el aeropuerto aquel 24 de mayo de 1993, cuando murió el purpurado; en Monterrey nadie habla de los otros dos civiles que cayeron ese mismo fin de semana víctimas del fuego cruzado. En Jalisco también hubo un gobernador que pensó que la mejor forma de evadir su responsabilidad era sumándose a una marcha contra la violencia.

La crisis de Monterrey no se resolverá fácil ni rápido. Lo que sigue es el auto exilio de las élites con consecuencias sociales y económicas importantes. A Guadalajara le costó muchos años entender que el problema no "venía de fuera" sino que fue su propia sociedad la que entró en crisis y el narco no fue sino una consecuencia de ello. El atajo, la vía rápida, se llama autocrítica: reconocerse en el espejo, y plantearse lo más rápido posible la renovación de su élites. El asesinato de los dos jóvenes del Tec no es el final de un proceso de descomposición, sino el arranque de un largo camino hacia la reinvención.

en el pais.com

trevor paglen

2010-03-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

a very very interesting video about secrets. reminded me of the idea behind taryn simon work but exploring many more things. trevor paglen is going to have a book published by aperture called invisible

Flak Photo | Photography Online | www.flakphoto.com

2010-03-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Flak Photo | Photography Online | www.flakphoto.com

elemental. a new proposal on social housing in monterrey

2010-03-11T16:23:00.000-08:00

Monterrey from elementalchile on Vimeo.

Guate Photo Festival 2010

2010-03-09T22:17:00.000-08:00

to participate and more information go here

one of PDN's 30, 2010

2010-03-09T21:53:00.000-08:00

view the gallery with all the participants here

reviewing the archive. 3 blocks in diffrent stages of construction

2010-03-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

critical mass book winner!

2010-02-22T11:03:00.000-08:00

I am honored to be one of two winners of the 2009 book award given by photolucida.

the black snapper

2010-02-20T13:56:00.001-08:00

the black snapper

eugenio espino barros

2010-02-19T09:48:00.000-08:00

one of my mayor photographic influences, eugenio espino barros, was a prolific professional photographer that invented his own camera and camera brand: the Nova. here are some of the images that made me think of the mexican landscape in a completely different way. also, a statement made by espino barros for the prologue of the book Mexico en 1910.

cartagena in suburbia mexicana

2010-02-18T17:29:00.001-08:00

after 3 years of taking pictures in the suburbs of monterrey`s metro area, finally someone noticed my work and decided to name a street after me... just kidding! this is a suburb where all streets have names of Spanish cities. it felt good to find this though!!

all I wanted was a pepsi

2010-02-15T18:35:00.000-08:00

nice!

2010-02-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

foundviarichardrinaldiblog

student work: luis alvarez from guatemala

2010-02-10T19:31:00.001-08:00

luis was a student at a workshop in guatemala for la fototeca. his blog

weekend favorite: beth dow

2010-02-06T16:58:00.001-08:00

i have been a fan of beth´s work since i saw it through critical mass some years back. her images are intense, beautiful and subtle. her combination of composition and theme go hand in hand creating an aesthetic commentary on built "nature". i especially like the garden and field work series. she also has blog called inderect objects.

23 sandy down+out

2010-02-03T17:18:00.001-08:00