Mark Phillips' Pages: Workbook: 9/4/12: Tourists in the market.

Jacob Lawrence, "Photos" (1951) — Jacob Lawrence, *Photos* (1951)

September 4, 2012:

Tourists in the market.

The same market everywhere. Inexpensive local cloths, mass-produced but advertised as ethnic. Baubles, jewelry, mostly cheap, some not. Colors, twists and turns, a narrow alley forcing crowds to rub shoulders.

The same tourists everywhere. White, puzzled, not sure what they want, not sure how much to spend, not sure if they wouldn't rather be back on the bus.

Could be Tijuana, could be Athens, could be Stanley, could be Kinshasa or Cairo or Hanoi. Doesn't matter. The products are the same, the busses are the same, the experience is the same. To some degree this is actually why they come.