The Happy Life Project - P.I

The Happy Life Project is a series of 15 portraits of strangers who live in Mexico City, result of many interviews/conversations held with people who belong to different Social Classes or Statuses; regardless they're rich, or poor, or middle class, regardless what they do for a living, regardless their role in out society, the main question in those conversations was "Are you happy?".

This first part of the project was focused on a particular part of the population, those who are considered Working (or Lower) Class. Often thought or seen (by society) as insignificant and miserable for living under the conditions they do.

However, very few people actually dare holding a conversation with them, let alone, ask them the really simple question: "Are you happy?".

Well, I did; I grabbed my camera -as a tool for documentation- and went out to talk to these people, to spend time with them and find out if they're as "miserable" as the general population thinks them to be or if, by the contrary, they're happy regardless their economy and general living situation.

To the surprise of many, the results were overwhelmingly positive; this first part of the project resulted in a total of 7 portraits of people and 6 out of them affirmed to live a Happy Life. This people does not have a fixed income and live day by day, many of them earn just enough to "get by" and none of them finished even High School.

Below, you will find the portraits of the subjects with a caption that includes their name, age and whether they're happy or not.

Alfredo - 32 - YES

Karla - 2 - YES

Ana Xóchitl - 18 - NO

Margarito - 78 - YES

Ramón - 3 - YES

Víctor Manuel - 70 - YES

Magali - 28 - YES

Note1: This wasn't just a simple survey where I asked these people the question "Are you happy?", but I took the time to talk to them, to get know them a bit and have real conversations with each one of them, to build a rapport with them, to gain their trust...at least, enough to get them to answer that question that is so simple but which answer is, at the same time, so hard to respond for most people.

Note2: Conclusion on this project will be included when the last part of it is presented.