Mean Streets Photo

Photographer’s Note

In this case using 'mean' in the sense of meagre. A bit obvious to point out how revealing markets are about all kinds of aspects of a country. Compared with yesterdays street market, this one in Havana tells a very different story. Wherever you find a queue at any food retail outlet in Cuba, you can be pretty sure it's for rationed goods on the controlled peso market. There's also a legitimate dollar market, with normal supermarkets selling everything you can think of at around the same price as you'd expect in the US or Europe. The Average Cuban salary, however, is around $15 dollars per month, which is just about enough to get by on in the peso economy, with an unofficial exchange rate of 20 to the dollar, and controlled prices keeping essential items at less than 1 peso for things that would normally cost more than a dollar.

This street market was in Centro, just off central park. The original photo had the whole lorry in, but Imade a tighter crop to focus on the queue. no other adjustments.

ChrisJ, manny, Kenny10pin, mimi, sunny, Jeppe, omritoppol, veimann, touristdidi, Catli has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

clodreno (0) 2004-05-06 4:14

Nice scene .Soft colors, I like that.

ChrisJ (70443) 2004-05-06 6:21

A very good photo doco shot.

manny (21378) 2004-05-06 6:38

Reality hurts. Why is this picture full of blue. It does convey the blue mood to me too. But the red stands out. Thanks for sharing us a piece of info here.

Kenny10pin (19301) 2004-05-06 11:56

very strange market shot, I havent seen this kind of shot before, really well done here, great coverage of the surrounding area

mimi (2321) 2004-05-06 12:30

Great documentary shot and great note to go with it. Like Manny, I was overwhelmed by the sense of blue. At first I thought there something wrong with the color on the shot, but when I looked at it for a while, I realized that everything is just blue.

I wish I could go to Cuba (:

sunny (3068) 2004-05-06 16:10

It is a sad view of this scene, all in blue. I feel a bit suffocating when looking at queues...Still remember them.
Wonderful idea to include the woman in the outstanding red outfit and bring a bright spot in the composition, Richard. Their postures are so expressive. Very well seen and captured!

Jeppe (18623) 2004-05-06 18:47

Thanks for sharing this documentary Richard - surely theres a lot of places around the world where people lives a hard life - and this group of people tell the story without words - and your note tell the rest.

Seams to be very warm :-)

omritoppol (826) 2004-05-07 15:29

A good documentary picture Richard; with a good note to accompany it. I'd also include more of the truck. Thanks for sharing

[workshop] [compare] +

veimann (1250) 2004-05-07 17:52

Sadly. However, each country, sooner or later, passes through this stage. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is tightened. We shall not be about sad.
It is any " dark blue quarter ". It would be desirable to clean from him same in red :) Well done

Piotr (0) 2004-05-23 12:29

Good reportage picture, thank's for useful note, regards, piotr

touristdidi (8561) 2004-07-15 11:42 [Comment]

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