STARS — Jordan Thomas Law

STARS

An Exhibition

Visual Treatment / Exhibition Proposal

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Stars is a collaborative portrait exhibition examining the lives, labor, and humanity of app-based delivery workers in New York City.

Using formal studio portraiture, the project reframes delivery riders not as anonymous infrastructure within the efficiency economy, but as individuals whose bodies, vehicles, clothing, and personal modifications carry the visible traces of modern urban labor.

Photographed against colored seamless paper backdrops, riders are presented with the same visual language often reserved for celebrities, athletes, musicians, or fashion campaigns.

Alongside each portrait, close-up detail studies document:

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scratched helmets
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improvised bike repairs
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stickers and decals
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weather damage
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scars and calluses
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gloves and protective gear
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mud-covered wheels
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cracked phone mounts
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personal objects carried during shifts
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The project also is proud to feature a collective profit-sharing structure in which featured participants retain an ongoing stake in the success of the works created within their production group.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The modern convenience economy relies on bodies constantly in motion.

Delivery workers move through cities carrying food, packages, medicine, and daily necessities, while algorithmic systems reduce human labor into metrics:

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delivery time
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efficiency
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ratings
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route optimization
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customer satisfaction
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All reduced to a single metric; the star. This project interrupts that invisibility.

Rather than documenting workers within the chaos of the street, the studio environment removes distraction and isolates individuality.

The portraits become less about occupation and more about presence.

Every scratch, stain, repair, sticker, scar, and modification becomes evidence of a lived reality.

The work exists between:

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portraiture
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labor documentation
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fashion photography
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social observation
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archival image-making
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The exhibition aims to hold tension between dignity and exhaustion, individuality and systemization, identity and infrastructure.

VISUAL LANGUAGE

Portraits

The portraits are highly controlled and intentional.

Subjects are photographed similarly to:

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celebrity editorials
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studio fashion
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Lighting is sculptural, clean, and deliberate.

Subjects maintain agency in how they present themselves:

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proud
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exhausted
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humorous
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guarded
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confident
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vulnerable
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defiant
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Victimhood has no place in this project, the goal is visibility.

COLOR SYSTEM

Each rider is photographed against a white seamless backdrop.

The consistent studio setup creates cohesion across the exhibition while allowing each subject’s individuality to emerge.

DETAIL STUDIES

Alongside each portrait, detail images focus on the physical traces of labor.

Subjects include:

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hands
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stickers
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helmets
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masks
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brake handles
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chain grease
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cracked screens
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bike modifications
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delivery bags
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patched rain gear
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receipts
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scars
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tools
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worn shoes
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charging cables
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navigation mounts
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These details function as secondary portraits.

INSTALLATION DIRECTION

Gallery Layout

The exhibition combines:

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large-scale portraits
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smaller detail studies
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object installations
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optional audio components
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Installation structure:

Main Wall

Large-scale rider portraits printed approximately:

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40x60 inches
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50x70 inches
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framed or mounted cleanly
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Spacing should feel deliberate and minimal.

The portraits should confront the viewer directly.

Secondary Walls

Clusters of smaller detail studies:

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8x10
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11x14
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16x20
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Installed salon-style.

These walls function like evidence boards of daily labor.

PARTICIPANT STRUCTURE

Participants are collaborators within the project.

Drivers are grouped into production “Blocks.”

Revenue generated from works associated with a given Block is shared collectively among participants within that Block after deduction of production and exhibition costs.

This structure positions participants not simply as subjects, but as stakeholders in the cultural value generated through the work.

THEMATIC DIRECTIONS

The exhibition explores:

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labor invisibility
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migration
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urban survival
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bodily wear
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technological systems
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infrastructure
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masculinity
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weather exposure
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autonomy vs algorithm
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identity within platform economies
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movement through modern cities
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REFERENCES

Visual and conceptual references may include:

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contemporary editorial portraiture
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August Sander
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Philip-Lorca diCorcia
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Alec Soth
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Irving Penn’s small trades portraits
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Richard Avedon’s “In the American West”

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commercial fashion lighting language
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labor documentation photography
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New York street infrastructure
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The intention is not documentary realism alone, but a collision between commercial image-making and contemporary labor portraiture.

EXTENSIONS

The project may expand into:

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photobook publication
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short documentary film
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public installation
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editorial collaborations
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live talks or panels
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audio archive
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city-wide poster campaign
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museum programming
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CURRENT STATUS

The project is currently in development.

Initial production focuses on building:

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a consistent visual language
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rider relationships
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studio methodology
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installation framework
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collaborative revenue-sharing infrastructure

The long-term goal is to create a body of work that operates simultaneously as:

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contemporary portraiture
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labor archive
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collaborative art project
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urban social document
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CONTACT

Jordan Law
Good Time Gang Films, LLC
New York City

www.jordanthomaslaw.com
Jordan@goodtimegangfilms.com
https://www.instagram.com/jordan.thomas.law

© Good Time Gang Films LLC