Monday, January 12, 2015

Market Vendors, Lagos, Nigeria

Photo by Robin Hammond, from National Geographic. I find this picture very evocative of contemporary Africa, where poverty and other dire problems coexist with great energy and vast amounts of cheap but brightly-colored stuff. More here.

1 comment:

G. Verloren said...

The interesting thing is how many details are essentially indistinguishable from many places in the US. I've seen countless power lines and power poles just like those; I've been in the near twins of those buildings, exposed cinderblock walls and all; when I was younger I played with many of those "Dollar Store" plastic junk toys; I've even bought produce from a wheelbarrow and bottled water from head carried buckets of ice.

The one detail that stands out to me as being truly foreign is the amount of soccer/football related items - I can clearly make out jerseys for Argentina, Brazil, and Italy, and I see a few other tops that I suspect are other World Cup teams, and one or two that look like regional level team jerseys. Aside from that, this could be one of the poorer, ethnically charged streets in Southern Florida for all I could honestly tell you.