I came across Samantha Casolari’s work only last week. I was particularly interested in a series she did back in 2009 called ‘Lady Trucks’ documenting a truck driver festival in Italy, so I sent her an email to find out more.
Where did you take the photos for the series ‘Lady trucks’?
I took the pictures in Felina, a little town on the mountain by Reggio Emilia, in Italy. It was during a Truck drivers gathering. Kind of a festival for truck drivers…
Are there many female truck drivers in Italy? Do you think it’s a job that you could do?
There aren’t that many, but I guess their number has slowly been growing, especially in the past decade. That is why this group of women I photographed decided to create some sort of club – they are called “Lady Trucks”, to promote the image of women truck driver throughout the nation.
Personally, I would love to try and drive a truck once. But I am too much of a day dreamer to do a job that requires such alertness, toughness and attention at all times…
Your originally from Italy but now live in Brooklyn, NYC. Are there any plans to meet up with any American ‘lady trucks’?
I would love to meet some American lady trucks. I think it would be interesting to see how many things they have in common and how many they have not. The thing that I have noticed with the Lady Trucks I met in Italy is that despite their tough appearance and their very ‘manly’ lifestyle they really are like any other Italian mum, wife of girlfriend; very warm, affectionate and with the family as their main concern, yet so passionate about their job. They chose to be truck drivers out of passion, which was somehow striking to me. Would American lady trucks be the same? I would love to discover that too…
Do men and women decorate their trucks differently? Do you reckon you look at a man and lady’s truck from the outside and tell who’s whose?
Yes actually, this could be one of their major differences. Decorating their own trucks is an extremely important thing for truck drivers. Men and women. The Lady Trucks first of all have a pink ribbon on the front of their trucks, so that when crossing each other’s path on the road they can show and recognise they are part of this club. It’s a sort of badge that serves as protection (men will know who they are and that they are Lady Trucks) and a symbol of their sisterhood on the road. As for their own personal decorations, you see a lot of red and pink, and hearths and love symbols, as well as pictures of the husbands and boyfriends and teddy bears. Their beds (they sleep inside the trucks during rest time) are definitely more elaborated and cosy then the bare mattresses on the floor I have seen in most of the men’s trucks.
I don’t think think I could do the truck driver lifestyle, I would get too lonely. What else do they do at truck drivers gatherings? Do they have bands playing?
Truck drivers gatherings are pretty much what you could expect from a regional festival. The main celebrity at the gatherings are certainly the trucks, all parked in display for people to see. It is like being at a fashion show, since they are shiny, glittering and cleaned for the purpose. Then you have stands selling the most absurd gears for trucks. And obviously you have the party side of it. Food, drink – lots of it – local bands or djs, games and something like a beauty pageant for truck drivers. At the one I went to they elected Mister and Ms Truck, as well as Mr Panza (a slang way to say beer belly). Truck drivers went crazy during the contest!
