Suburbia Mexicana Book Available in Mexico and Europe

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

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

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

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

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

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

mauricio alejo

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

the article here

sweet friday

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

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