It was the visual contrast that first caught my attention. The street vendor at night with a customer silhouetted by the light of the cart. I took the picture, only thinking that it was a nice shot because of the lighting.

While on subsequent travels, I noticed street cart vendors everywhere. The personal novelty of these carts led me to start photographing them. Initially, my focus was on New York City due to the ubiquity of the carts there. I was struck by how commonplace they were. So much so that I noticed most people simply passed by the carts without any thought, as if they were just part of the urban landscape. However, many of these carts fight against being ignored by being brightly colored and lit up. That contrast resonated with me.

As I continued photographing these carts, I also noticed that they are often located in prime real estate. It was commonplace to find the carts in major tourist areas, close to major monuments, nearby to high end retail stores, or in the highest rent neighborhoods. I began photographing the carts within the bigger space they occupy, hoping to emphasize the contrast between their humble operations and those larger operations.

Along the way in developing this project, I realized it was incomplete without considering the vendor - the person tending the cart. I was personally interested in the contrast between the differing emotions of the vendor. On the one hand, these vendors clearly project satisfaction and enjoyment by providing something valued by their customer. However, I also found their faces and body language demonstrating the toil involved with long hours and the physically demanding tasks of operating the cart.

So, what started as a nice photograph with some visual contrast evolved into my first project and my attempt to explore broader contrasts represented by the street cart vendors.

See the full gallery below.