'The Bazaar Portfolio'

Bazaars are the supermarkets of the poor. Vendors are farmers or producers selling vegetables, fish, meat and other foodstuffs. Or they are merchants selling cheap shoes, clothing, toys, tools and gadgets and much more.

Bazaars are also a place of social interchange were neighbors and friends meet each other to exchange the latest gossip, jokes and news. They are also a tourist attraction and a street photographer’s paradise.

Greek Bazaar style markets are seasonal markets, i.e., they are periodic. They are held once a week. Vendors and buyers have a settled place to buy or sell items. Vendors have makeshift stalls within these markets, as a fixed place to serve their customers.

In Greece, you will find quite a few large established markets which are quite famous and contribute much to the economy. The Bazaar of Xanthi is one of them. It is multi-cultural market place where you get to meet all sorts of people of any age group and different social status. The vendors are mainly Roma gypsies, Greeks, Pomaks, a few Pakistanis and East Asians that peacefully co-exist at this place of ordered chaos. At the fringes of the market you may also find the ‘illegals’, vendors without a license selling their meagre produce or even stolen goods.

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This series of photos were taken at the Bazaar of Xanthi in Northern Greece in October 2022. For me this was ‘Terra Incognita’ since I had never previously photographed in such a setting of confined space and constant action. I used my trusted Pentax K1ii full frame DSLR camera and the SMC Pentax-M 28 mm f2.8 and the Revuenon 55 mm f1.2 MC manual focus lenses. A lot of these pics were shot clandestinely ‘from the hip’ but all the pics taken with the normal lens are conventional shots. Observing these rapidly evolving situations offering a wealth that we must have cut some of it out on the spot and had to be framed instantly forgetting other similar scenes developing just a few meters to the left or right, to stay focused was a very rewarding experience – like watching a movie.