About Traditional Market

A traditional market is still a phenomenon of social existence in their struggle among the progressive competition of malls and plazas. This is a public sphere where we can see everyone from every segment of people coming in and out for the meeting of demands and supplies. From lower and middle class citizens who stereotypedly we assume as the common majority in this place, to the upper class who act as if they were among the ordinaries who actually as a whole buyers seeking the cheapest deals and the owner of some selling points who actually have a luxurious house and they have kids having their studies abroad.

What I like from a crowded place like this traditional market is the challenge to capture the scenes in a condition where people usually aware the presence of a photographer then they will be curiously shy to act like usual. I usually make a direct approach to have a small chat, to greet and ask something and telling a joke to them so I can build a kind of temporary closeness. I took the pictures at the Tanjung market and Trunojoyo market, Jember, East Java.

A view of a vegetable store

The basket seller and her daughter

Mrs Hajah and Mrs Tacik. It's the picture of a moslem local woman and the catholic Chinese woman who sell side by side in a line. This is one unique characteristic of a traditional market where multicultural people live in harmony. They have been at about 10 years selling their breads and meat side by side.