Carpoolers by Alejandro Cartagena
Carpoolers is an acclaimed documentary photo series and self-published project from Mexican photographer Alejandro Cartagena started in 2011. Concerned with the neoliberal policymaking in the city of Monterrey and rapid housing expansions on the outskirts of the city, Cartagena critically documents the fissures between blue-collar urban centres and the lack of infrastructure connecting the suburban overgrowth.
“The collection of The 50 Carpoolers depicts laborers in México captured from an overpass, commuting between distant suburbs and urban centers. Like much of my work, this project comes from a desire to tell the story of the dramatic environmental, economic, and demographic changes playing out in my home city of Monterrey. This series has circulated the internet since 2011 and has been exhibited widely around the world”
“From the vantage point of a highway overpass, the photographer has vividly and repetitiously documented the contract workers and tradesmen who hitch rides in the back of the trucks that will take them to that day’s worksite. As many as eleven labourers are seen at a time in open beds scattered with equipment and commercial goods; many sleep side-by-side, perhaps as strangers to each other. Provoking in its apparent ubiquitousness, this fiercely conceptual series raises concerns regarding the failure of urbanism and neoliberalism in Mexico; its ecological ramifications; and social and economic stratification—within the confines of the image itself even the driver and owner of the vehicle, concealed in the cabin and unseen to us, holds a superior status to the labourers who are exposed to the elements.“
“The way the worker is lying on the bed of the truck with the old wood really gives the sense of the invisibility of the people that build our cities. Having worked in the service industry for years myself...in hotels and restaurants, traveling for hours in buses, that invisibility was latent and a burden that is not to be taken lightly. It was also a space to build an idea of the life I wanted. 10 years, traveling 3-4hrs a day back then, has made me very thankful of my life today”
