27-MAR-2006
Spice lady, Ishigaki, Okinawa, Japan, 2006
Business is slow for this spice merchant in one of Ishigaki's colorful markets. She sells some of the ingredients necessary for Yaeyama cooking -- a regional Japanese cuisine. The spice is important context here, but it is the expressiveness of her hand gesture and face that provides meaning. She appears tired, perhaps bored, resigned to the fact that customers are far and few between. I also took note of how the necks of the tall bottles rhythmically repeat the flow of her fingers. Their bright orange color dominates the image and act as pointers to the hand and face above them.
14-MAR-2006
Mobile newsstand, Beijing, China, 2006
This Beijing newsstand is ready to roll at any time. It was the incongruity of its
transient, impermanent nature that drew me to this scene. The large yellow column acts as a beacon of color, leading us directly down into the papers, which are squeezed into the narrow space between that column and another. Space is a premium in Beijing, and this method of selling papers makes the most of the space available. The salesman, meanwhile, has free reading material and takes advantage of it when he has the time to do so.
14-MAR-2006
Night Market, Beijing, China, 2006
Beijing's Donghua Yeshi Night Market serves up skewers of freshly cooked seafood and meats by the thousands. This image offers a detailed look at the creatures ready for cooking, some of them familiar, others not. It is the wealth of incongruous detail that makes this image express its ideas. To those who enjoy such foods, it might also stimulate the sense of taste. The presence of the cook is important. She humanizes the image, adding the human value of enthusiasm to the equation.
15-MAR-2006
Jewelry shopper, Beijing, China, 2006
A uniformed attendant helps a shopper sort through a pile of boxes as she searches for a perfect ring. I cropped the image at the bottom to only suggest the pile of boxes, implying that there are even more than meets the eye. I used a 200mm focal length, shooting into the shop from the street. The look on the shoppers face reflects a significant human value: doubt. Is this the ring for her? Or was the one she tried on ten minutes before? She was there when I arrived and still there when I left, so I don’t know if she ever did find the perfect ring. If this image asks similar questions of the viewer, it will be successful as expression.
17-MAR-2006
Clothing stall, Namdaemun Market, Seoul, Korea, 2006
Some shoppers find this market chaotic. Others will find bargains. I found an evocative image. I walked through this market looking not for clothing or electronics or jewelry but for the play of light and shadow on those who shopped and those who sold. When I saw this booth I stopped in my tracks. It was exactly what I had been searching for. The shadows are eloquent in their subtle, muted tonality and color, simplifying the chaos of his stall and making of it a background of shapes, colors and textures that support the subject rather than detract from it. The ultimate triumph of light here is the way it picks up the salesman’s face and only his face, carving out an expression of patient resignation.
02-NOV-2005
Shoppers, Mercado de San Juan de Dios, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
Bundled against the chill of a November morning, a couple makes their way along the truck lined streets surrounding this vast marketplace. This image puts the “place” in the market. The air is cold, the road is rough, the trucks and big and numerous. One gets the feeling that these people have done this before, many times over. They walk with a familiar attitude that tells us they know what to expect when they get there. I used a telephoto focal length of more than 300mm to reach out and compress the rows of parked trucks, making the crowded road seem even busier.
29-OCT-2005
General Store, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 2005
There are relatively few supermarkets in San Miguel. Most of its residents do their marketing at shops such as this general store. Many of the town’s 5,000 expatriate residents patronize them as well (except for those who can drive just outside of town to visit its Costco). This image is an environmental portrait of a store, with six brooms standing in for the owner. I built it in layers, with an outer frame embracing the scene, the brooms as the incongruous subject, and the counter and shelves dimly seen as a background layer.
03-SEP-2005
Plum Stand, Dolac Market, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005
It's early morning in Zagreb's Dolac Market, and a plum seller awaits her first customers of the day. I found shooting during the set-up period a refreshing change from the struggle of trying to find a clean shot amidst the turbulent pace of buying and selling. I had all the time I needed – there were no people to get in the way or clutter the background. There is only one other person in this shot, a partial view of the fellow at the peach stand behind her, and because he is blocked, he becomes an insignificant part of the context. This image is really a portrait of self-confidence, pride, patience, and experience. The purple plums are piled before her – she has even cut one open so the customer can see the stage of ripeness before they buy. I have placed her within layers of color and texture – the purple plums are arrayed before her, an empty green table stands behind her, and behind that are crates of peaches and lemons.
19-JUN-2005
Clothing stall, Waterlooplein Flea Market, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005
I don’t know who this fellow is or what he represents, but discovering his glowing face slowly emerge from the stacks of clothes hanging around him was startling. He is in deep shade, but the sun grazes his head and softly illuminates the cloth around it. The eyes are soulful and the expression serious. His fabric likeness seems to be placed here to draw attention to the clothing, and it made a worthwhile image of a marketplace as well.
19-JUN-2005
Super Pencils, Waterlooplein Flea Market, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2005
This image looks as if I moved in very close for a macro. I didn’t. The pencils were enormous. I deliberately removed all reference to scale, and instead concentrated on detail and rhythmic repetition. The more I looked at them, the more they resembled a stylized mountain range, with black instead of white snow on the peaks. Most items sold in a marketplace are not graphically unusual. But given an incongruous concept or vantage point, the ordinary can indeed become extraordinary.
A Family Business, Chinatown, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
To take the pulse of a market, watch the expressions of those who work within it. I am not as interested in showing what kinds of veggies are for sale in this particular street market stall, but rather the intensity of feeling conveyed by those who own and operate it. There are a variety of responses reflected in this image – the most striking is that of the woman who sits at right, holding her hand to her face as she chats with the man whose back is to the camera. Others in the family seem expectant, looking for business that is perhaps on its way. Their lives will be affected by what happens in this place, and I wanted the expressions I’ve included in this image to offer a sense of that.
22-JAN-2005
Shopkeeper, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
I found this shopkeeper standing alone in the shade of his roadside shop, catching up on his reading. Participating in a market requires knowledge, and I wanted to express that fact in this image. His little shop is located in a small village, and he must often have time on his hands. Yet the golden late afternoon light that bathes the scene provides an optimistic context. He is seems to be making a living at what he is doing.