The Uber Impact

https://www.matthewjoseph.co.uk/

Aggrieved and listless faces of local taxi drivers stare out defiantly at the viewer in photographer Matthew Joseph’s latest series, examining the impact that Uber has had on local taxi drivers and their businesses across New York, Paris, Cape Town, Johannesburg, London and Rome.

A revolution in technology it may be, but at what cost? This a question that Joseph’s work begins to answer, discontent sketched into every crevice of a driver’s face as each photographic portrait sits alongside a quote. “Ubers are like cockroaches”, one proclaims, a bitter and poignant statement that all too aptly describes the reality of Uber’s stranglehold over the world’s taxi system.

As a photographer, Joseph has a passion for people and the journeys that they take, including all of the stories they carry with them. With the arrival of Uber in London, and the vast impact that the company continues to have in the capital, Joseph was driven by a desire to explore beyond the clickbait headlines and meet those whose lives had been impacted by Uber first-hand. Talking with and photographing taxi drivers across six significant cities, from New York to Cape Town, The Uber Impact brings to light questions around how developments in this multinational corporation filter down and cause significant issues for those who have worked as taxi drivers for generations. Should we give greater consideration to the lives of those affected, or should we embrace this technological change?

Many of the subjects have paid a high price for their trade, training for years to become experts of each route and side street and often laying down large sums of money for the medallion or insignia that registers them for trade. From a consumer standpoint, the rise of Uber seems largely superlative, a case study for supply and demand. Feeling tired? Order an Uber. Visiting a friend? Take an Uber. It’s a mantra that seems whispered on the winds of change, but it is a wind that has whipped into a frenzied tornado of frustration and loss for these drivers, whose source of income has been irrevocably damaged.

As with all evolution, one could argue that fortune favours the strong, but here we see a strength sapped from the lifeblood of a proud people, those who have existed for generations on providing a fundamental service to those in need of getting from point a to point b. The influence that Uber has had on the taxi cab industry is written on every face in Joseph’s profound photographic portraiture series, exploring the true impact of the controversial conglomerate giant and questioning the cost of technological revolution.

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Oscar, London, The Uber Impact, Matthew Joseph

London-based Matthew Joseph is an award-winning photographer whose commercial work sees him shooting across the advertising, editorial and corporate industries for brands, creative agencies, publications and selected NGOs.

Emigrating to the world of photography from the music industry, a bold and cinematic approach to his subjects and their environment strives to evoke emotion, whilst retaining an honest authenticity that he hopes will provoke a reaction, thought or discussion. Obsessed with light and capturing moments from a young age, it's people, faces, journeys and stories that dominate Matthew's work as he gladly follows it around the world. 

Having won the RICS Infrastructure photographer of the year 2016, he was recently awarded 1st place at the 2017 Art Gemini Prize PhotoX competition. The winning image was taken from his portrait series 'River People', which made it to a prestigious solo exhibition in Westminster, London. His work received national press coverage on TV, radio and in the newspapers, as well as being recommended by Time Out. Matthew's latest project 'aGenda' made him a finalist in the 2017 AOP awards. and was first exhibited in August 2017, on London's famous South Bank before visiting two other venues across the capital.

Matthew is proud to have been selected by Lürzers Archive as one of the Top 200 Ad Photographers worldwide for the 2017/18 annual.