Empirical detail aside the bazaar is more than another demonstration of the truth that, under whatever skies, men prefer to buy cheap and sell dear. It is a distinctive system of social relationships centering around the production and consumption of goods and services that is a particular kind of economy, and it deserves analysis as such.
(Geertz 1978)
Have you ever been in a city without visiting one of its markets? Maybe. Did you never interact with a market? The answer is: NO! In his famous article “The Bazaar Economy” the anthropologist Clifford Geertz argues that markets are fundamental in culture and economy. Today, in urban settings, it is perhaps not usual any more to physically go to a market. But we buy food, consume a lot of energy, we deal with money and dump rubbish. Practices, that are linked to market infrastructure – not always quite noticeable in the era of virtual markets and economy. Sure, Geertz’ perspective was on the bazaar economy in Morroco, but markets, in whatever form, are a constitutional structure in late capitalism.
Since colonial times market sceneries have been a favourite topic in photography. Photos at that time showed people from “abroad” and the colonisers dealing with “exotic” goods like coffee, tobacco or sugar. We use market places as markers in urban geographies and in ancient times the market was one of the main public hot spots. Everybody has a certain image in mind when he or she is thinking about markets. And a lot of people have interesting market stories about bargaining and other funny situations. Maybe we never feel more lost in a foreign country than on a market.
As an economic anthropologist I’m really interested in all kinds of markets but especially in the stories people know to tell about them. Photo-ethnographic work needs to grasp the perspective allowing to participate, talk and capture the scenery. Photography and ethnographic story can be used as a starting point to think about this basic infrastructure in late capitalism. In my view, it is a good starting point to look at the details of markets. The goods, interaction, communication, weights, money, bargaining, chats and other things tell us how the infrastructure is assembled and how it works.
