Deborah Schoen - Weekly Post

Alejandro Cartagena

Alejandro Cartagena stands on overpasses and takes shots of pickup trucks filled with Mexican immigrants traveling to work. His technique is to capture tightly framed images and to shoot in early morning. Cartagena uses a 5D Mark II camera and a Sinar 4x5 cameras to capture his scenes.

Cartagena’s Car Pool series could be addressing issues with privacy and intimacy within the United States. The people captured in Cartagena’s photographs are doing whatever it takes to live the American dream. Cartagena’s series started out as an idea behind city-urban growth and how it affects people in every life but throughout time it evolved into something else.

 I love Cartagena’s brightly colored work that also carries a textural element that is raw and rugged. At first look, Cartagena's Car Pool series looks mininalistic in style but after spending time becomes more complex in content. Being born and raised in California, this is an image that is very familiar to me. His work spotlights the difference between a typical American’s commute to work and an immigrant working in the fields of California.