En Los Mercados

I have spent the past two days exploring markets throughout the city and taking photos of them for my final assignment. I think my photojournalistic skills have gotten much better and I have felt very welcome by many of the vendors--it's been an extraordinarily unique and enjoyable experience. On Thursday, I literally felt consumed by the expansiveness of some of these markets. On one street, covered tents lined both sidewalks for blocks and blocks with merchants stacked on top of each other. I eventually stopped keeping track of where I was because it was too overwhelming.

I probably spent the majority of my time in La Mercado de Merced, a market several blocks East of the historical district of the city that occupies a number of buildings and sidewalks. I think I only saw a small fraction of the entire place, but what I did see was very cool. In the fruit and vegetable market, for example, I could walk for hundreds and hundreds of feet and run into neatly stacked row after row of the same vegetable.

Most of the merchants were very receptive to my presence. While there were a few people there were either apathetic or didn't want me to take their photos, most were awesome about it. I'd slowly walk around the markets with my camera wrapped around my wrist and in front of me. After I passed some people, they would call my attention and ask that I take their photos. Others would point to their neighboring friends and ask me to take photos of them, but would refuse to have their own picture taken. If anyone seemed too eager to have their own photo taken, the other merchants would tease them and whistles would ring out throughout the market.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

I've alluded to it, but haven't explicitly talked about the workshop Andrew and I are participating in. The workshop is six days long--it started on Monday and tomorrow (Friday) will be day 5. There are about 140 photographers involved, including the instructors--many of whom are world class photojournalists. They've been all over the world and you've probably seen much of their work.

Each student is in a class with a specific instructor. Our days are dedicated to attending our classes and shooting photos for them. My class is taught by Guy Calaf and it has five other students. Every night everyone gets together for a slide show and panel discussion involving the instructors and their work. Then we grab dinner and beer with instructors and do it over again.

We have two major assignments in Guy's class. The first, as discussed in "Ready, Set, Go!", was to document a neighborhood of our choice in 24 a hour period. The second is to choose a subject of our choice and to develop a story around it. I have chosen to explore life in Mexico City's markets. Here are some photos that I took for it today:

It's not THAT big of a city

I'm in a city with some 19 million other people. Wikipedia will tell you it's the second largest city in world. In many ways, the city is very alive. Many sidewalks can be found bustling with activity. There are taco and magazine stands, merchants, and other street vendors everywhere. They all want to sell you stuff. Business people in suits can be found making their way to and from work, while others head to their own destinations. Children can be found being dragged along by their parents and teens are often wandering aimlessly with their friends or hanging our in central public spaces. I've walked an hour in some directions and have found no drop in activity.

Many streets are packed with all types of automobiles--buses, cabs, cars and trucks alike--though there are very few SUVs. During peak hours, police officers will join their ranks theoretically helping direct the chaos. At one point today, an officer stopped a lane of cars that had a green light to allow some pedestrians to cross. Four or five cars immediately laid down their horns in unison. There are sounds everywhere. Construction workers can be heard helping build the city closer to the sky. There are sirens and horns, shouts and whispers and everything you can think of in between.

I have spent the past few days wandering around the city in search of subjects to photograph. In that time, I have seen very few tourists and barely any of the other 140 photographers that are participating in this workshop. Earlier today I was a twenty-five minute walk from both my hotel and the school where we have been taking class. It was a huge surprise to me when someone behind me suddenly asked me, "So you're just going to walk by me like that?" I turned around to find another gringo, also sporting a camera bag around his shoulder. He was taller than me, had plastic glasses and a slightly red-tinted beard. He dressed like he was from the Pacific Northwest, but clearly had an East Coast accent. I invited him to join me at a nearby market that I was about to shoot and we exchanged stories about our days and what we'd been up to. As we parted ways, I pestered him for his name and promptly forgot it, though I'm pretty sure it was "Andrew." Hopefully I'll see him again, he seemed like a great guy.

Here are some photos from wandering around today:

Ready, Set, Go!

Imagine being in a new country, wandering through the streets of one of the world's largest cities. With the exception of a few chains that are scattered along major avenues, nearly everything is unfamiliar to you. The people, the culture, the history--it's all above your head. You even have trouble understanding the language. Oh, and you have less than twenty-four hours to get to know one of the city's neighborhoods well enough to be able to tell a story about it through a series of images. Good Luck.

This was the daunting task that presented itself to me yesterday afternoon. I chose to document Roma, an quiet upscale neighborhood that was safe, sounded interesting, and was within walking distance. Given the deadline, I found myself taking many of my photos in less than desirable light. I also had difficultly interacting with locals and getting compelling photos of them. Despite anything that was working against me, though, I think there are some great photos in the final product. The assignment has definitely given me a good idea of where I stand and it has highlighted some of the things I can focus on as I move forward. Check it out:











On an abbreviated scale, I think the assignment illustrates a common problem that photojournalists face. To paraphrase my instructor, Guy Calaf, photojournalists are experts at nothing. They need to immediately be able to portray the people and places they visit, but often don't reach a true understanding of those subjects until their work is done and they are moving on.

Naked People Want their Land Back

We had our first day of classes in the photojournalism workshop and all went well (I'll write more about this in another post). My group finished our discussion around three, got some lunch, and then dispersed to begin our first assignment. I headed back to the hotel to do some research. While walking back, I noticed three buses parked along the sidewalk that seemed out of place. As I ambled closer to them, I realized that "policía" was printed in block letters on their sides. Each bus was filled with police officers and while all this peaked my interest, I attributed these unusual circumstances to my incomplete understanding of the city and it's dynamics and continued on. I also have been avoiding contact with the police and didn't want to bring attention to myself.

I walked by the buses, avoiding eye contact and eventually made it back to my room. I did the research I needed and then headed back into the city to begin taking photos. As I was making my way toward the neighborhood where I was going to shoot, I ran into the following scene, explaining the presence of the buses I had seen earlier.



The group was protesting actions by a previous administration, which they accuse of taking land from them. They also were all naked.