Transmit – Transit

Livery Cab Car Service Black Cars Gypsy Cab Jitney Cab Sedan Service Hack

So many names for a single service – labels that have positive and negative connotations and yet represent entrepreneurship, hard labor and even a social service. If a livery cab picks up a pedestrian who has hailed the cab for a ride, that livery cab becomes a gypsy cab, because it is no longer operating within its legal enterprise. Livery cabs may only respond to phone calls made through the dispatch office. The titles above refer to the non-Yellow Cabs operating in New York City, the cabs most commonly available outside Manhattan. And in some neighborhoods of the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island these cabs present a necessary service, at times the only mode of public transportation readily available.

The exhibition, curated by Ricardo Miranda-Zúñiga, addresses the notion of traveling in the Bronx. Mr. Ramos-Fermin presents a multimedia installation focusing on issues of migration, access and globalization. He has worked more so as an investigative journalist or documentary filmmaker. Ramos Fermín has logged several hours of video interviews with livery cab drivers, he has visited several dispatch offices, diners, gas stations, car repair shops… the local spaces of the drivers. Over the last several months, he has engaged with the livery cab community to learn of its reality, document it and create an engaging portrayal that is both attentive and serious. The final outcome of his investigation is not an investigative article or film, rather it is a rich installation that attempts to capture the hardship and diversity of the trade.