Moveable Feast

Aperture Foundation, 2010 – 2011
NYC Green Cart Program Commission

Moveable Feast: Fresh Produce and the NYC Green Cart Program
Mar 22 — Jul 10 2011
Museum of the City of New York

Artist Statement

I set out to document encounters with the Green Carts’ owners, workers, and customers. I was looking for how the presence of a mobile food cart can generate human connectivity on the street and also at the relationship between people and fruits and vegetables. After studying the list of Green Cart locations, I began mapping out the neighborhoods. I learned right away that most Green Cart vendors know exactly where other Green Cart vendors are located and can point you in the right direction.  I would spend three to fours hours at each Green Cart before I would start shooting to learn the Green Cart workers’ schedule, their regular customers and the highest point of the day when fruit was sold.

Over time, I learned that the workers at the Green Cart are not always the owners, that they encounter fierce competition for business with other nearby vendors, that there are constant worries about health department code violations and fears of harassment from the New York City Police.

It’s funny how vendors are visibly outside on the street working sunrise to sunset and sometimes twenty-four hours a day, but some how they remain invisible.

— LaToya Ruby Frazier