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.

“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.“