Open Every Day
The statement by Steve McCurry on my home page "It is important for you to spend your time photographing things that matter to you. You need to understand the things that have meaning to you, not what others think is important for you." was on my mind when I took this photograph at the Pike Place Market a couple of weeks ago.
This is the first photograph I've made there since the start of the pandemic that expresses how I'm feeling about the market. City Fish "open every day" wasn't open. Since I haven't been there since I took the picture I don't know if they have thrown in the towel or just were closed that day.
What I do know is that skyrocketing rent are driving a lot of the businesses along the bricks on Pike Place and in the lower levels out -- and that they are being replaced with much more upscale businesses that are obviously there for tourist business. The day I took this picture the market was teeming with people -- the line in front of the "original" (it isn't) Starbucks was nearly a line long. "Corner Produce" is now a gelato shop. The "low stalls" that rent by the day to farmers and art/craft people are now lacking farmers -- except for flowers.
The market has been important to me for a long time. It's clear that it is becoming a lot like Faneuil Hall in Boston -- a tourist attraction that still looks like a market. With the tourist industry becoming an increasingly important part of Seattle's economy I guess that's a good thing but I'm still sad about it.
On a lighter note -- I have been in the darkroom twice in the last couple of weeks. I silver-printed a couple of the "in the manner of" photographs that were in my last post (that I had not identified as digital prints). Seeing the silver prints reminds me of why I still do that. I know, I know, it's a matter of taste but the silver prints are so pretty. I wish it showed on a jpeg.
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