Photographer Andrea Santolaya accompanied their daily lives for 20 days. The result can now be seen at the Kiosk of Largo Mártires da Pátria, in front of the old secondary school.
Printed in large format photographs - three meters - there are the faces of those who do this job. "I hope the population sees that there are human beings, people, doing this work.

It's not a machine, it's a passing truck, it's not a robot. And, on the other hand, I hope they realize not only the importance of cleaning, but also recycling", says the Spanish photographer living in the Azores and whose work has already been exhibited in countries such as France, Italy, Israel, Venezuela, Mexico, United States, Portugal and her own country, being currently on display at the Fonseca Macedo Gallery, in Ponta Delgada, under the exhibition "Isolated".

It took me almost 20 days doing the whole municipality of Ponta Delgada in a garbage truck. In the first morning hour, before they started working, I would take the pictures - two to four per day. And they helped me as photo assistants," she says.

"I learned a lot. I had no idea, for example, of the physical and mental effort that this profession requires," the photographer stresses, confessing that what she likes the most about this project "is its humanity."

"For many of these people, it was the first time they were portrayed professionally. As was the case João, who was going to retire in December after a lifetime dedicated to cleaning greens. And that's the case with Adriano as well," says the photographer, who also says that "André knew he was going to do his portrait that day and came with a shaved beard and a hairstyle."

"Everyone took care of me. They would take short breaks and everyone invited me, and I shared with them that pause. That changed the way I photographed them, too. The way they opened their hearts to me," she explains.

For Andrea Santolaya, "photographic work is a strong social tool." "I use this tool to bring people closer together, to bring people to realities that they might not have noticed otherwise," she explains.

In the Kiosk, there is a selection of portraits of those behind the municipality's waste collection service and of photographs showing their work, as well as information about it.
"I love the magnitude of the images" and "the relationship between architecture, images, garden," says Andrea, who confesses that she feared the photographs would be vandalized but admires "the respect" that people have shown for the project and its protagonists.

The photographer will be at Fonseca Macedo Gallery, where she will explain the work on display, followed by a walk to the Kiosk, where she will talk about the project, developed with the Municipality of Ponta Delgada, within the framework of the European Week for Waste Prevention, focused on the theme "Invisible Waste".