At SFMOMA: A photography show about a guy who gave up photography

"Alejandro Cartagena hasn't picked up a camera in six years, he told a slightly baffled audience gathered for the opening of his photography exhibit, "Ground Rules," on display at the SFMOMA until April 19. Instead, the Dominican Republic-born Mexican photographer continued, he's turned his attention towards a new art from: AI. At this news, some sitting in the audience visibly shuddered."

"Shortly before Cartagena moved with his family to Mexico, the Mexican government embarked on an ambitious plan to build hundreds of housing developments across the country. These new suburbs were meant to be affordable to Mexico's working class, but ultimately saddled new homeowners with properties they couldn't afford to care for, and couldn't get rid of either. Every year, their loans got bigger, and their quality of life declined."

"In Cartagena's early photos of Juarez, idyllic portraits of families pose against a backdrop of sprawling, nearly identical, cube-shaped homes. But over the years, his later work depicts Mexico's burgeoning change. Over the next decade, Juarez grows rapidly from a town of 60,000 people to a booming metropolis of over half a million people - and the city's infrastructure struggles to keep up. The once pristine homes begin to display signs of turmoil."

Alejandro Cartagena stopped photographing six years ago and shifted his creative practice toward AI. He previously documented everyday life around his family home in Juarez, capturing families posed before sprawling, nearly identical cube-shaped houses. The Mexican government built hundreds of affordable housing developments that saddled homeowners with unaffordable loans and poorly constructed homes. Many houses lacked running water, burst into flames, or quickly fell into disrepair. Juarez expanded from 60,000 to over half a million residents, straining infrastructure and exposing the failures of suburban planning. Photographs and stills show homes razed by a hurricane, overtaken by vines, and displaying visible signs of decline.

Read at Mission Local