This exhibit has no title per se. I considered calling it “Untitled” but that would be trite. The exhibit expresses itself. It doesn’t need me to give it direction by assigning a title to it. So, this is “Photo Exhibit 2017.”
In one sense, this is an extension of my previous exhibit, “Markets of Southeast Asia.” I continue to travel to SE Asia and, when I do so, I often visit the local markets for photography. Especially, I enjoy the open-air morning markets and night markets. The morning markets sometimes begin as early as 4:00 or 5:00 AM, so it means getting up very early. I don’t mind.
My first visit was to the markets in Bangkok in 2003, so I guess this series has been ongoing for about 14 years. What keeps me going?
At first, everything was so strange to me as a Westerner. The products, the environment, the people, the way of doing business, everything was new to me. I think that the products were the most curious part for me at first. Fruits and vegetables that I had never seen before. A wide variety of meats, including live animals such as chickens, fishes and snakes.
Later my attention turned to the process of buying and selling at the markets. Everything was done by hand – no PCs or other digital gimmicks here. Sometimes the cash register was a basket suspended on a spring rope. The buyers and sellers could negotiate the prices. Produce was weighed by hand on a balance.
Now my attention has turned to the people at the markets, both vendors and customers. Usually I mostly watch. Sometimes the people react to me, usually in a friendly way, and sometimes they ignore me. I try to become invisible to capture people as they really are, as they go about their daily business. From that perspective, it becomes a form of investigation for me.
The series has morphed into a collection of portraits. The theme, then, is the people in the markets.
Visit the gallery “Markets of Southeast Asia“