La Vega Central is Chile’s busiest wholesale (and retail) produce market, across the river from Mercado Central, with great-value lunches at the counters, coffee at kiosks, fruits from legendary sellers, and portraits everywhere of workers.
But more than that, stories: from people like Cecília.
We spent so much time talking; she’s so cool and fun! The type of person who is light and is always smiling/positive. I think there’s something special about carrying a camera and identifying yourself as a photographer, but not being eager to immediately take their photographs; instead, prioritizing the real-life interaction, the conversation, the moment, and the photo? Ah, that’s just a celebration, for the record. That’s the right approach to earn trust.
They see the ultimate goal; everybody sees it. The chance is there; you are a photographer with a camera, but foremost, they see you as a real human being eager to make connections, and not someone who is just interested in “stealing” their image in trade for likes and internet dopamine, as it’s really common nowadays.
I don’t usually keep the camera in my bag. I leave it visible, but pointed down.
Then, Juan Zorilla arrived in the conversation, or “Cecilia’s #3”:
The “#3” thing was a mystery in our interaction, at least for me. Juan, Cecília, and I spent like 15 minutes trash talking in a public market.
I’m Brazilian, so if there’s something good I’m at, it’s trash talk. So, I asked them if I could be the #4, without knowing what these numbers are, and still now, I don’t know if I am her fourth husband or son 😂.
Alright! Time to move on. After walking some booths, smelling fruits that are inexistent in the US, I found Luis, or the King of Garlic, at least that’s what it said on a sign close to him:
The composition was a little hard to make, because Luis had a trash can on his left side. I had to recompose and I regret not having the 35mm lens, because the man was surrounded by garlic!
He works in the market for decades, always selling the same product — garlic.
Moving on, I found this guy (I forgot to collect his name in my little field notes notebook, shame on me!). He was selling strawberries. I first took a portrait of him, and my wife noticed that his hands were all red from handling strawberries all day long, so I asked him to show it on frame because they were curiously red from the strawberries. He ended up doing a traditional “thumbs up.”
I should have asked him to open both hands wide open, that would be a superb portrait! What do you think?
Moving on, I found this nice lady, which I believe is his sister, so alike they are! I liked the scenario around her (all the scenarios rock, you can’t go wrong on a public market!), and after learning a bit from her (which also, shame on me for not collecting her name), I asked for a portrait:
Did you notice that all the portraits I showed you so far are horizontal? That’s a tip I learned from Steve McCurry on his street photography workshop! I asked him if he does vertical or horizontal portraits…