Aperture Releases Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules

New York, October 14, 2025—This November, Aperture releases Ground Rules, the first comprehensive survey charting the career from the early 2000s to the present of the prolific photographer and editor Alejandro Cartagena. Fully bilingual in English and Spanish, Ground Rules includes contributions by Tatiana Bilbao, Álvaro Enrigue, Horacio Fernández, Charlotte Kent, and Shana Lopes. The monograph is published on the occasion of Cartagena’s first retrospective exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), curated by Shana Lopes, and on view from November 22, 2025, through April 19, 2026, followed by a presentation at Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, in summer 2026.

Cartagena is known for his formally engaging and socially incisive images that span the politics of the US-Mexico border, land use and the effects of suburban sprawl, climate change, 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.

The book is designed by Ricardo Báez and emphasizes Cartagena’s serial-based approach and innovative production of artists’ books. The development, arrangement, and sequence of photobook-making is a central part of Cartagena’s practice, and he has self-published over twenty photobooks to date, including the renowned Carpoolers (2014) and A Small Guide to Homeownership (2020), both represented within Ground Rules.

As part of free, public programming planned for the book’s launch, an Aperture Conversation with the artist and Álvaro Enrigue will be held on Tuesday, December 9 at 7:00 p.m. at Parsons School of Design, New York. At SFMOMA, Cartagena will participate in an artist talk and book signing on November 22, at 2 p.m. PST, during which he will discuss the ways his photography and interest in archives help document and expand our understanding of topics like climate change and shifting natural landscapes. For details and registration, visit aperture.org/events.

The publication of Ground Rules was made possible, in part, with generous support from Paula Ely and César Rueda. Alejandro Cartagena: Ground Rules is published by Aperture and available at aperture.org/books.

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Alejandro Cartagena (born in 1977, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) is an artist and editor whose projects employ landscape and portraiture to examine social, urban, and environmental issues. Cartagena’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York; Patricia Conde Galería, Mexico City; Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris; and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona. His work is in the collections of museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; George Eastman Museum; and Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California. Cartagena was a runner-up for the Aperture Portfolio Prize in 2009. He lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico.

Tatiana Bilbao is a Mexico City–based architect and founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio.

Álvaro Enrigue is a Mexican writer based in New York and an associate professor of romance languages and literatures at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

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.

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About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From our base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through our acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society. For more information on Aperture, visit aperture.org

Aperture’s programs and operations are made possible by the generosity of our board of trustees, our members, and other individuals, and with major support from 7G Foundation, Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Charina Endowment Fund, Documentary Arts, Ford Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Marta Heflin Foundation, Ishibashi Foundation, Joy of Giving Something, Anne Levy Charitable Trust, Henry Luce Foundation, Mailman Foundation, MurthyNAYAK Foundation, Grace Jones Richardson Trust, San Francisco Foundation, Thomas R. Schiff Foundation, Jane Smith Turner Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Stuart B. Cooper and R. L. Besson, Kate Cordsen and Denis O’Leary, Thomas and Susan Dunn, Agnes Gund, Michael Sonnenfeldt, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović, National Endowment for the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts, with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

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Press contact:
Lauren Van Natten, publicity@aperture.org