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Look: Expat in UAE captures daily life of men who cycle with cardboard boxes

Through his passion project, Italian expat Marco Fraschetti explains that he wants to help the country's 'cartonmen' and give them the spotlight they deserve

They are everywhere, but they are ‘invisible’. You see them balancing flat carton boxes, like the ones discarded after a TV is unpacked, that are piled up high and tied to their bicycles as they ride through the busy streets, and sometimes even fast highways. One Italian expat did notice them, however, and decided to put them under the spotlight.

“You can see them on the same road close to luxury cars, making the same route, but with different destinations. I give them the visibility they deserve." This is the description of the Instagram page ‘Cartonman Project’ started by Marco Fraschetti, a performing arts consultant, photographer and musician who has been living in the UAE for the last 20 years.

Speaking to Khaleej Times, Marco said that there are moments in which he looks around and he notices new things in the city, and new perspectives. At some point he started noticing the ‘cartonmen’ carrying the carton boxes on their bikes, and he started to take their pictures. “I asked myself: where do they sell them? How does it work? I realised, perhaps because I ride a motorbike, how dangerous it must be for them on the streets. I noticed that at times their boxes might fall to the ground, and how sometimes they drive really close to cars,” he said.

At a certain point, Marco said he realised that that no one looks at them, or notices them, so he started posting the pictures under the hashtag #cartonmanproject. He recently decided to create a dedicated Instagram page for this project, without really knowing what it would lead to.

The response from the artistic community has been impressive, according to Marco, who said he initially only reached out to artists he knew so that they could follow his page. “What I didn’t expect is that many of them wrote back asking how they can contribute to this project and what they can do,” he said, adding that some of them contributed with their own drawings of his photographs and with other art creations relevant to his theme.

“They told me that they will send the page to all of their friends. It’s not often that you see artists come together for a social cause; usually it’s for purely artistic projects,” said Marco.

In Italy, as in other countries, ‘cartonmen’ exist, but the contrast is stronger here, when you see them with the backdrop of the city behind them. “The contrast and gap between the social classes aren’t as striking as it is here,” he said.

When talking about his project, Marco uses words like dignity, humanity, sustainability and resilience. However, the word he uses the most is empathy. “I want to cultivate empathy so that when people see them, they look at them with a different eye.”

But what exactly does he hope to achieve with this page? He wants to help the ‘cartonmen’ adopt safe practices. His next step is to speak to the ‘cartonmen’ and to interview them on camera to know more about what they do, perhaps even follow them throughout their day. “On a personal level, I also want to be practical, and so I plan to hand them visibility jackets with illuminated strips so that they can be safe on the roads at night,” he said.

Ultimately, however, he plans to curate an exhibition later this year to create awareness about these men, and to educate the public about the work that they do. “The UAE is marking the year of sustainability this year, and the work these men do check all the boxes. They are recycling these boxes, but also using a mode of transportation that’s 100 per cent green,” he said.

The exhibition, Marco said, won’t be held in a fancy gallery, but he is currently looking for a warehouse in an industrial area near the accommodation of the ‘cartonmen’. “I want people to see who they are and where they live. I want to tell their story from the place in which they live,” he said, adding that the exhibition will be open to the artistic community who are welcome to participate with their relevant art projects.

“I am trying to help them, and so I’m looking for the best formula to do so,” he said, adding, “if they are safe, we are safe too. It helps us all to help them.” He said that after coming to the exhibition, he’s sure that people will look at the ‘cartonmen’ differently; they would ask themselves about who they are, and what they do, and “they might even say hello to them.”

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