MinerAlert
MinerAlert
Julian Cardona
January 24, 2013 - March 15, 2013
Project Space
Award-winning photographer Julián Cardona documented the demolition of one of the most notorious streets in Ciudad Juárez, the Calle Mariscal. Since the early twentieth century, the thoroughfare has enjoyed a thriving nightlife that attracts both locals and tourists. Americans flocked to its bars, dance halls, and brothels during Prohibition (1920-1933), while Mexican drug cartels sold marijuana at the intersection of Victoria Alley and the Calle Mariscal. Until recent years, clients from both sides of the border came to the street seeking easy access to drugs and prostitution. Beginning in 2007, however, city officials started to systematically dismantle the street, in an effort to contain the widespread violence and lawlessness. This decision was met with mixed reactions, because many active businesses and historic buildings were leveled in the process. Cardona not only documented the Calle Mariscal before its destruction in a series of stunning photographs, but also interviewed people who lived, worked, or visited there.
Born in Zacatecas, México in 1960, Julian Cardona migrated to the border city of Juárez with his family as a small child. He attended school in Juárez, received vocational training, and worked as a technician in the maquiladora industry. In 1991, Cardona returned to Zacatecas to teach basic photography at the Centro Cultural de Zacatecas; two years later, he started his photojournalism career at El Paso Fronterizo and El Diario de Juárez. In 1995, Cardona organized the group exhibition, "Nada que Ver - Nothing to See" in Juárez, featured in Harper's Magazine December 1996. Photographs from this exhibition inspired the award-winning book, Juárez:The Laboratory of Our future (Aperture, 1998).His photographs taken inside foreign-owned factories in Juárez were also featured in Camera of Dirt (Aperture 159, 2000). Cardona's work has been exhibited at Houston FotoFest 98: "Stories About Us"; in "Borders and Beyond", an international group show organized by Pro Helvetia - Arts Council of Switzerland; in "Lines of Sight: Views of the U.S.-Mexican Border", at galleries of the University of California at Riverside, Santa Cruz and Merced; and in "Photography Past/Forward: Aperture at 50", at Sotheby's New York in January, 2003 and in the Golden-Anniversary publication of the same title. In 2004, Cardona received the Cultural Freedom Fellowship Award form the Lannan Foundation of Santa Fe, NM.