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A comprehensive survey of a prolific photographer who fearlessly charts the dreams and dystopias of Mexico today.Ground Rules is the first comprehensive, fully bilingual survey charting the career of the prolific photographer Alejandro Cartagena. Celebrated for his photobooks
Carpoolers (2014) and
A Small Guide to Homeownership (2020), Cartagena is known for his formally engaging and socially incisive images that span the politics of the US-Mexico border, suburban sprawl, and the increasing wealth disparities in North America.
Ground Rules deploys a diverse array of photographic formats, from documentary and collage to the appropriation of vernacular photographs and AI-generated imagery, all unified by Cartagena's commitment to addressing Mexico's most pressing social and environmental issues with humor and pathos.
Published to coincide with a mid-career solo exhibition at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, on view from November 2025 through May 2026.
About the author
Alejandro Cartagena (born in 1977, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. His work has been exhibited internationally, including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, and is in the collections of numerous institutions, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Portland Museum of Art, Oregon; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; West Collection; Coppel Collection; FEMSA Collection; George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York; and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.Tatiana Bilbao is a Mexico City–based architect and founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio.Álvaro Enrigue is a novelist whose books include Sudden Death (2016) and You Dreamed of Empires, named by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2024.Horacio Fernández is a photo-historian, curator, and author of numerous books, including Fotografía Pública: Photography in Print, 1919–1939 (1999) and The Latin American Photobook (Aperture, 2011).Charlotte Kent is associate professor of visual culture at Montclair State University, New Jersey.Shana Lopes is assistant curator of photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and curator of Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules.
