Julián Cardona (photojournalist)


Julián Cardona is a Mexican photojournalist who is known for documenting poverty and violence in the city of Juarez, Mexico.

Early life

Julián Cardona was born Zacatecas, Mexico in 1960. His family moved to the city of Juarez when he was a young child. Raised by his grandparents, and with only a ninth grade education, he taught himself to use a camera professionally by age twenty. He worked in the maquiladora industry until 1991, when he moved back to Zacatecas to teach photography.

Career

Although he had earlier done some photography for tabloids, in 1993 Cardona began to work professionally as a photojournalist at the Juarez newspapers El Fronterizo and El Diario de Juárez. He has co-authored many newspaper and magazine articles along with several books, including Juarez: The Laboratory of Our Future and Exodus/Exodo, both with journalist Charles Bowden. His photographs have also been profiled in several major exhibitions, including Nothing to See, Borders and Beyond, Lines of Sight: Views of the U.S./Mexican Border, Photography Past/Forward: Aperture at 50, and Stardust: Memories of the Calle Mariscal. Cardona worked for several years as a Reuters correspondent in Mexico beginning in 2009, and he also was a photography editor in Mexico City. He currently works as a freelance journalist and photographer.

Impact

Cardona is considered to be one of the most important photographers documenting the economic challenges and criminal drug-related violence in Mexico along the U.S. border, especially in Ciudad Juarez. His photographs have sometimes been criticized for their graphic portrayal of violence, including torture, rape, and murder victims. Other critics have observed that Cardona links the extreme violence in border cities like Juarez with the influx of Maquiladoras, something that Cardona himself has acknowledged and emphasized in interviews.

Publications

Cardona’s photographic archives are preserved by the Tom and Ethel Bradley Center in the Oviatt Library, Special Collections and Archives, California State University, Northridge.