428 - Mercado Libertad
Today's adventure was in my first world market. I don't count farmer's markets, or really ANY market in the USA as a world market. They just don't compare.
Our destination today was Mercado Libertad- known as San Johnny Market by the locals. It’s also the largest indoor market in all of Latin America.
Going in, I knew it was going to be nuts. I’d never been to one like this, so I decided to embrace it. We went Sunday afternoon, one of it’s busiest times all week (second to Saturday morning.) I figured it’d be a great opportunity to shoot some legit street photography, in a dope location.
Let’s cut to it.
Walking it, we happened to enter right by the butcher section. It was the perfect introduction to the mayhem. There were pig legs, skin, and other body parts I couldn’t recognize swinging around on hooks. The first thing that really caught my attention was these cow heads:
“Missing”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1250 ~ 36mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/320s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
The funny thing was that I wasn’t going to include this shot at first because the heads were out of focus, but upon closer inspection, I realized the focus was on the butcher’s fingers in the corner- which were cut off.
Interesting. Now the photo a story… Karma, anyone?
We kept moving along, and this is where it started to get difficult for me. I wanted a shot of EVERYTHING, because the place was so damn busy. But everything was crammed into small, claustrophobic hallways. So even though you could hear and smell (yes, smell) people everywhere, you could only see the cramped hallway in front of you. It was disorienting, to say the least.
I realized I needed to focus on shooting a singular person to start off. Multiple subjects at once was too much handle. I was also moving fairly fast, and needed to slow down and post up shop in one spot for a bit. Actually focus on something and construct a composition…
So I found this neat staircase with a lot of angles, and centered the green graffiti. Within 10 seconds, an elderly women in red started walking down right under a wire, which became synonymous with the red broom in the top right corner. I snagged this shot:
“Two Alike”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1250 ~ 67mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/320s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I really liked playing with the symmetry patterns there, almost like yin/yang. Also red/green are complimentary colors, so that didn’t hurt.
Phew! I had at least one shot that wasn’t just a cow head. We kept moving, and I utilized my newly formed lesson of slowing down for street photography. There was no need to hustle through everything- even though it FELT like everyone around me was. I was here to take in the environment slowly, not do business like everyone around me.
We kept walking, and I looked out the window. I saw these neat crosswalks, and a person walking through them. I used the black blinds as a foreground, and snagged this quickie:
“Barcode”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1250 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/8000s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Within another minute or two, I got a similar shot, from the same vantage point. An editing note I’ve learned from looking at so much street photography on Instagram is that it helps to crush your blacks. This creates strong contrast, and can make things seem more anonymous and bold, like this character’s head:
“Red Jet”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1250 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/8000s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
It also helps reduce things down to more minimalist shapes, which can be important in a street environment where there’s lots of stains and out of place objects.
Next, we decided to walk through the food court, which quickly became my favorite part of the experience. THIS was where the true organized chaos of this place was.
Imagine food stands in every direction, with a roof only a few feet above your head. People of all types eating everywhere, foreign music blasting, the smell of 20 different cuisines wafting into my nose all at once, strange food sizzling before my eyes, and workers shoving menus in in face trying to get me to sit down at their stall.
It was absolutely insane. I tried to shoot something, but I’m not going to lie, I couldn’t focus. My senses were on overdrive- I’d never been in an environment like this in my life. I started to feel a slight panic attack coming on, but I quickly changed my mindset to amazement in an effort to counter it.
After about 15 minutes in the food court, Haley told me she wanted to go get some fresh air outside, and I agreed. We needed a break.
My emotions were buzzing like crazy. I felt so many things at once- pure fascination, adrenaline, disgust, hunger, happiness, and confusion. We sat on this bench outside and just watched people walk by for a bit.
My nerves started to calm down again, and I snagged this shot of 5 people walking by at once, all in different depths of field:
“Five”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1250 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/3200s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I particularly enjoyed the rainbow colors, and the girl who’s head was in a bag.
And with that, we decided we’d gotten enough culture shock for one day, and decided to take a bit of a calmer detour into a local museum. It turned out to be one of those fine art museums where there’s massive empty galleries and you just stare at abstract art on walls.
It was the complete opposite of where we just were, and felt like jumping into a hot tub after swimming in a raging, ice cold river. I didn’t shoot anything worthwhile there, my mind was still processing the market from before.
All in all, one of the coolest things I’ve done on this entire trip. I felt like I could come back and take photos there for days.... Just absolutely bonkers- nothing like that exists in America.
Now I’m ridiculously excited to shoot more markets. I’ll be back- except next time I’ll be moving through it just a little bit slower.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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