Mendoza is a highly acclaimed an internationally recognized reportage/documentary photographer. His work has been collected and exhibited in museums and galleries around the world including, amongst others, The National Portrait Gallery in London, The National Portrait Gallery in Scotland, The Smithsonian Institute, The Royal Photographic Society in the UK, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The Denver Art Museum and Editions de la Tortue in Paris.
His work has been published in a variety of prestigious books including the University of Michigan Quarterly Review, the M.I.L.K. trilogy of books on Family, Love and Friendship, The Art Directors Index to Photographers and the Denver Confluence of the Arts.
Mendoza has received numerous awards including a Colorado Council on the Arts Fellowship and is a two-time recipient of a John Kobal Foundation award for portraiture. He also received a grant from Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Person’s Foundation to complete an essay on Hassidic communities in America.
During the 1990s, as Artist in Residence at the University of Denver, he developed and ran a highly regarded program for troubled teens, using photography as a tool for youngsters to see their world. At the same time he was invited to be a grants panelist for Neighborhood Cultures of Denver, responsible for bringing the arts to low income areas through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the national Endowment for the Humanities.
Much of Mendoza’s work deals with social issues, such as his highly acclaimed Portrait of a City Hospital, a photographic essay on health care in America that is now part of the permanent art collection for the City of Denver , and anthropological subjects such as From Generation to Generation a documentary on Hassidic communities in America which is now held by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Vaya en Paz (Go in Peace) the story of a community reclaiming its neighborhood from gangs and drug dealers in East Los Angeles. The Projects are Dead, Long Live the Projects an essay that documented the demolition of the old gang ridden projects and the residents move to newly built estates.
Occasionally his dry English humor comes out in his work and is represented by some lighter essays including - Mutt ‘n Man - a series of photographs made of dogs and their owners. Benches - a look at the juxtaposition of people sitting on bus benches and the adverts displayed. El Prado - dance club hostesses at a little night club in East Los Angeles.
Over the past 12 years, Mendoza has spent a considerable amount of time lecturing and giving workshops at art centers and universities around the country on photography, reportage, documentary making and Zen in the Art of Photography, beyond the snapshot – creating art from photography.
