A collaboration project with artist and photographer Marvin Systermans

During the lockdown in Barranquilla dozens of street vendors roam the streets everyday wearing masks and gloves, defying the restrictive government measures and putting at risk their own health in order to earn enough to get by. They are part of the 60% of the population who work in the informal sector and whose subsistence has been endangered due to the pandemic. In its crisis management, the government has found no or very little answer to the need of these people, and while the number of infected with Covid-19 continues to rise, the street vendors have no other choice but to keep moving forward (echando pa'lante).

The portrait series Echando Pa'lante addresses the precarious situation of street vendors in Barranquilla understanding their situation as symptomatic of the problems in the country. The portraits are at the same time testimonies of strength and resourcefulness with which they face the the difficulties that have become more acute due to the pandemic.

The portraits were taken between April and June in the front yard of the house we lived during the first months of the pandemic in Colombia