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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Seven: How using words in pictures can expand meaning > Shoppers, Chinatown, San Francisco, California, 2007
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11-JUN-2007

Shoppers, Chinatown, San Francisco, California, 2007

Space is at a premium on the streets of San Francisco’s Chinatown.
Its neighborhood markets are chaotic places. I photographed these shoppers as they pushed their way into a shop. Behind them is a local delivery truck, its sides covered with garishly painted words. These indecipherable words symbolize the spontaneous nature of local commerce here and their colors are echoed in the maroon colored clothing of the woman who pushes a stroller before her. Additional context comes from the hand gesture of the other woman – she seems to be symbolically protecting herself from the turbulence of the streets of Chinatown.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/200s f/4.5 at 7.4mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Christine P. Newman02-Jan-2008 03:52
Yes, the combination of colours, these reds, is what struck me first. I thought that the background letters were graffiti on a wall, but your explanation tells us otherwise. Chinatown in Toronto is also often overcrowded. Chinese people may not mind because they must have bene used to it in China.
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