Admittedly, the mood today was initially gloomy, like the weather. Throughout my trip, I kept telling myself that I had come here for floating market stalls, and I wanted to stick to that idea. It was difficult to find and also difficult to capture. The uncertainty as to whether the motifs turned out well will remain for another two weeks. Again and again, the question arose as to whether I should switch to what I have been photographing for decades for the series, but I wanted to put all my energy into floating situations, extended to the rolling vendors who drove past the canals.
.
Since there are countless market stalls here, and you can hardly move without stumbling over one, I decided during my recovery period that I would spend another day working at a market so that I could bring home more photos like the ones I already have, only this time from Vietnam.
.
Arriving here in Hue, yesterday’s shopping proved to be rather fruitless, and I feared that the decision to continue traveling might have been the wrong one, that I might have driven away from the situations that I loved. In addition, the weather was not so good today; it was overcast to the point of being “too dark.” So… I had an initial conversation with the very friendly hotel manager Claudia, who recommended two markets that are not in the center. On my bike… and off I go!
.
And then what often happens: I looked at the digital map, chose this street instead of that one, hoping there would be less traffic, and three streets further on, suddenly there was a market, stalls on the street, dozens of them, again, like in South America, only women selling. EXACTLY THAT! Great!
.
We had pleasant conversations with many people, who cut fruit for us to try and offered it to us. I was asked my name repeatedly, and there was often laughter. Is it like in Brazil, where Anja = Anjos = angel? In the situation in the photo below, it wasn’t just one woman laughing, but dozens throughout the market hall. It wasn’t clear whether they were making fun of us, but in any case, we were standing in the center of the room and all the women around us were laughing. They were friendly and very nice. Unlike our previous experiences, there seemed to be no distance here; they were happy about our interest and we were happy about the visual impressions. Overall, it was a very pleasant atmosphere.
.
The market stretches across several streets, around two very dark market halls. Was the atmosphere so great because there were no other tourists besides us?
.
Working with the small camera was enjoyable, and tomorrow morning we will continue. We just need to find someone to accompany us who can also translate. Someone needs to tell the subjects whether they should stand a little further forward, not move, and not laugh…
I’m about to go to the neighboring restaurant and ask the English-speaking waiter if he has time tomorrow morning.
Working among the market women was a lot of fun. Below are the shot and the reverse shot.
.
And last but not least, I would like to rave about the breakfast at our hotel—it has everything! It’s so great to be able to enjoy a long and extensive fantastic breakfast in the breakfast bungalow floating above the pond with the koi fish—it’s a wonderful luxury! It is by far the best breakfast I’ve had on my trip.
.
Comments