Delivered Orders: 2020

Ezz Monem

5 - 28 Feb 2020

A series of images documenting Monem’s time working as an Uber Eats delivery person during his first year as a full-time art student in Melbourne. While making deliveries, Monem carried a small Diana Mini film camera in his pocket that divided each 35mm frame into two half-frames. The first half-frame of each image depicted the restaurant where Monem pick up the order, while the second depicted the destination where he delivered it. Each photograph is accompanied by the date and time of the order, the money Monem earned making the delivery, and a line tracing the path he took with his bike.

Monem started working with Uber Eats to make money, but soon became more interested in the delivery process for the images that it produced. He took that possibility as a motivation to continue working in an unremarkable job, transforming labor into a kind of fieldwork, studying the emergent phenomenon of online third-party food delivery from the perspective of the delivery person. The resulting works virtually connect places in the city through the photography process and the lines that depict these relations.