Miguel Calderon

Catalogo gathers photographs of prostitutes that were provided to the select clients of a brothel and shown to artist Miguel Calderon by his uncle when he was thirteen years old, so that he could choose one of them to undergo his "initiation into manhood." Thirty years later, Calderon has recovered these images and transformed them into part of a narrative which, out of a very specific context and age, he uses to analyze and recount his sexual awakening. But what happens when a child grows into a youth thinking that sex has a monetary value and that making love without paying for it is rather the exception than the norm? The loss of their virginity has always been a rite of initiation that adolescents have to face. In Mexico City in the 1980s the beginning of a youngster's sexual life was largely conditioned by the social pressures exerted by his classmates. To remain a virgin was synonymous with weakness and mockery; losing one's virginity became a matter of life and death, generally achieved by a visit to a brothel.