Alejandro Cartagena (b. 1977) has called Mexico home since the age of 13, and, for the past 20 years, the country’s shifting landscapes have driven his practice. Ground Rules is a serious new retrospective at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, spanning more than 20 extensively researched projects. The multiyear Suburbia Mexicana (2005–2010) is a prime example, examining the relationship between urban centres and the suburbs built around them. From sun-drenched, dried-up riverbeds to rows of identical box-like houses, Cartagena looks at how rapid growth alters landscapes and impacts the lives of residents.
Likewise, no exhibition of Cartagena would be complete without the celebrated Carpoolers (2011–2012). The series documents labourers who commute to urban centres in the flatbeds of pickup trucks – some sleeping, others reading newspapers, often surrounded by the tools of their trade. Sometimes there are up to ten people per vehicle. What sets this series apart is Cartagena’s vantage point – detached, shot from a pedestrian overpass above Mexico’s Highway 85, which connects the wealthy areas of Monterrey’s city centre with its surrounding suburbs. Many of these workers do not have access to a direct bus line, and so the series asks: what happens when rapid urban sprawl outpaces the availability of public infrastructure?
The daily commute is also the subject of Suburban Bus (2016), for which the artist took the bus nonstop for three days and nights, retracing the route he travelled to work at his family’s restaurant in Juárez during the late 1990s. Some of the most poignant images are those that depict hands reaching overhead; cropped and out of focus, the subjects could be raising their arms in celebration, not crammed into public transport.
Cartagena is interested in how the camera can be used as a tool to probe big questions facing societies today. “Photography changed our world two centuries ago; the way we see and think about it has never been the same. I want to be part of the history of how the medium transformed our understanding of social, political and environmental issues,” the artist says. Christopher Bedford, the Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA, agrees that Cartagena has achieved just that – cutting across borders in the process. “Whilst Cartagena’s photographs are rooted in his observations of life in Mexico, part of their great power is their ability to open up broad conversations that transcend geography.”
SFMOMA’s survey is wide-reaching, including recent experiments in form and media. There’s collage, as well as the brand-new We Are Things (2025), for which an AI generator was trained on a personal archive. Audiences are also treated to a celebration of Cartagena’s signature photobooks. Ground Rules is a worthy tribute to a prolific photographer with an unwavering commitment to contemporary Mexico.
Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules is at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art until 19 April.
Words: Frances Johnson
Image Credits:
1. Alejandro Cartagena, Rivers of Power #71, from the series Rivers of Power, 2010–16. ©Alejandro Cartagena, courtesy the artist.
2. Alejandro Cartagena, Suburban Bus #56, from the series Suburban Bus, 2016; © AlejandroCartagena, courtesy the artist.
3. Alejandro Cartagena, Suburban Bus #16, from the seriesSuburban Bus, 2016;© AlejandroCartagena, courtesy the artist.
4. Alejandro Cartagena, Fragmented Cities, Escobedo, from the series Suburbia Mexicana, 2005–10; © Alejandro Cartagena, courtesy the artist.
