Miguel Calderón: Catalogue gathers a collection of photographs of prostitutes that was provided to the select clients of a Mexico City brothel.

These were first shown to artist Miguel Calderón (born 1971) by his uncle when he was 13 years old, so that he could choose one of them for his “initiation into manhood.” Thirty years later, Calderón has recovered these images and transformed them into part of a narrative of sexual awakening.

Catalogue is an autobiographical exploration, but also a document of a specific time, place and mindset. The universal sexual anxieties and social pressures of adolescence are filtered through rituals specific to Mexico City in the 1980s, where virginity for boys meant weakness and mockery and for girls meant strength and respect.