It had been a long time since I went out with my camera for the day and seeing as I had a rare weekend off I dusted my big SLR camera, wrapped up warm and headed out the door. It wasn’t long before I returned home having not taken the correct lens – an annoying false start. Because of this false start though I bumped into Philip, the project manager of a building renovation project on Shaanxi Nan Lu near Jiashan Lu. He showed me around the 5 story building and the view from the roof terrace and I met his colleagues who were hunched over their lunch boxes in the builders’ office.
I walked around the corner onto Jiashan Lu and immediately came across a small child playing at sweeping the streets. Her face was covered in rice and her mother was trying to clean her up a bit when she saw me with my camera. The public were very tolerant of the child as she blocked the road with her pink brush, bowl pushing around a pile of leaves.
It was just after I had left the fishmonger that I was grabbed from behind in a bear hug only to find it was my old friends, Leigh and Ira, from Nanjing. What a coincidence to come across them in a back street. Having lunched and caught up I continued on my way to another street market near Laoximen Metros station. This is in the heart of old Shanghai and there are many old style houses around this area. I poked around some of them and got invited in to a few and chatted (as best I could) to the residents. I have the feeling they get quite a few photographers in this area.
The street market was one I had visited previously several years ago but without my camera. It takes a long time to get photos of people because I have to speak to each person, make friends and then ask. Of course some will say No but many will happily pose in front of the camera in exchange for you showing them the result.
I love markets, not just for the photo opportunities they offer but because the people there are often the friendliest you’ll meet. There is life at the market, plenty of life, old and young and lots and lots of laughs to be had.