'The Entrepreneur: The Dairy Vendor'

An oganized bazaar with canvas covers covering a large area is in

background, and down the street to her left is daily bazaar of farm

and imported food products sold mostly by farm women and a few

men -- heavily trafficked, especially in warm months. This lone

woman, probably from a farm, sells a bottle of milk, probably not

pasturized and a piece of cheese from her right hand, in cold rains

this Spring for a forlorn view. Your ratings, critiques and

observations are invited and most welcome. If you rate harshly, very

critically or wish to make an comment, please submit a helpful and

constructive comment; please share your photographic knowledge to

help inprove my photography. Thanks! Enjoy! john

ennui, well presented.

Thanks so much for the comment.  I had chosen 'forlorn' for her look but on reflection, maybe the word 'ennui' is the better word.

It's a very good choice of words and reflects understanding of the photo.

Imagine standing there in a chill wind for 8-12 hours then going home for household chores and sleep then returning the next day ad infinitum.

You'd have at least 'ennui' if not more.

Some of these 'little' photos are somewhat subtle, I think, and not geared to the larger Photo.net audience because they represent too closely 'real life' as opposed to the more heavily photoshopped visions of life, and stick to a certain genre which some find not very appealing (I do!).

Good remark and thanks.

john

John (Crosley)

'

These are just the kind of street photos that I like though, in reference to your comment that this kind of photo may not go over well on PN. These are real things happening in this woman's life, or for many people on the street for that matter. I like photos that pull me in, have me wonder what the story is, or show some interesting ironic moment.

If you didn't mention that she was selling those items I would have thought she just bought them and then my thought would have been...yuck..to be shopping on such a miserable day. There is always a backstory......I like this quite a bit.

When I first went to Russia in the '90s, I was surprised to find rows and rows of old babushkij (grandmothers, or more simply, old women) lined up, selling clothes on the street -- long rows of them.

Most were in organized rows where people visiting a famous Moscow Park came but there were other spontaneous rows of such women elsewhere.  They didn't have tables; tables were forbidden, so they just hung hangers with clothes on every part of their bodies, like draped ornaments on Christmas trees. 

Many were selling their personal possessions (Moscow's much more affluent now), but street sellers were there last I visited a few years ago, and they remnain in Ukraine too.  Later, it turned into a profession, with women turning their bodies into retail stores, standing often in frigid temperatures hawking dresses, blouses and even undergarments to passersby; they bought wholesale and sold retail.

In Kyiv Ukraine they're in the Metros (somewhat cleaned up because of Kyiv being a man host city for FIFA -- European football - now finished), but in certain stations entryways and exits are choked with vendors, and kiosks.

The 'underground economy' is just that -- thriving and bustling,and a visitor who doesn't go underground will miss the gravaman of the Ukrainian economy.

This woman sells in an areas where there is no substantial underground, but a thriving above ground produce market . . . . summer, and the other three seasons . . . . often with daily produce fresh from the farm and in winter months trucked in . . . . . is a great place to get good, cheap fresh produce of many varieties, often picked that morning EARLY.

Supermarkets hardly can compete, though there are many.

Kyiv is a city of bazaars, particularly food bazaars, but also everything else.  Moscow has them too.

Tomatoes are fresh, or they rot.

One can even find in Kyiv or even Moscow such heritage vegetables as Oregon Giant greeen beans if one looks hard enough, and Roma tomatoes, a supermarket staple in the West because they are tasty, cook well and are super hardy, have no place in Ukraine.

The Ukrainians buy fresh and eat fresh, or buy to do their own canning, and no sitting on the windowsill to ripen the produce; they buy vine ripened.

In season, there is enormous abundance of food, often for very short growing seasons -- raspberries and/or strawberries only for a few short weeks, then END. 

No everbearing strawberry varities like in the United States that produce beautiful looking fruit but are sour and flavorless; their strawberries are sweet and flavorful (we can grow those in the USA but those strawberries spoil faster than they can survive the trip to faraway markets).

I'm so glad this photo made you think; it's a slice of life in far-off Ukraine . . . . . but it's a real bit of life and photographically speaking in my view it has just that 'je ne sais quoi' (the I can't describe it) maybe in her expression that makes it better than some . . . . .(not an exact translation as the French speakers will recognize).

Yours is an excellent critique; in fact it excells.

My best to you and thanks.

john

John (Crosley)