I went out with Simona for some shopping and I managed to make a date with the well known fruit’n’veg shop called “La Primizia”, Tuesday morning 11am will be the first official shooting for the project! Finally! Things are moving slowly, it’s not that easy to approach people in order to enter their private/intimate spaces! So, to photograph a fruit and veg shop might be the right start!
At 11am I was at the shop and Antonio, with whom we spoke yesterday, was welcoming me warmly. It’s a family run business, of course. Father, mamma, three brothers, daughters in law, nieces and nephews and cousins. It’s a famous shop, they sell very fresh and only Italian produce – simply divine. Having been a fruit and veg seller all their lives, they have perfected the know-how to seduce customers to buy more than initially intended. It’s a pleasure to observe the brothers selling and my aim was to capture the typical Neapolitan gestures whilst their were selling their produce. Going for shopping in these kind of shops is not purely for the sake of buying food, it’s a meeting point, the owner know his clients and a chat or even a discussion is well part of the process. I was also looking to find some interesting details inside the shop and I found three different religious altars, decorated with plastic flowers and many photos. The reportage shots I took with the D700 and I also made some portraits with the Kiev. Funnily enough when I was setting up the portraits a man passed by and he recognized the camera, he is a lab technician and a passionate photographer and he knew that it was a copy of Hasselblad… The other, less amusing thing to mention is, that youngsters tried to snatch my D700 when they were passing by with the Vespa. Though it wasn’t that dangerous considering the fact that I was surrounded by a lot of people from the shop and onlookers. But it was a wake up call to be really careful of what could happen. Many Neapolitans have warned me from that…!
[caption id=“attachment_605” align=“alignnone” width=“466” caption=“Antonio and the water melon! A master of his profession, nobody can resist his charm!”]
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[caption id=“attachment_606” align=“alignnone” width=“466” caption=“Is there more to say? Ohh yes, the lemons do taste like lemons…”]
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[caption id=“attachment_607” align=“alignnone” width=“700” caption=“The Guerriero brothers in action”]
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[caption id=“attachment_608” align=“alignnone” width=“466” caption=“Maria, Padre Pio and Chiquita - tutto insieme per la fortuna del negozio”]
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