I grew up with this around the corner market “Piata Flavia”, and it was always a lot of fun to go there with the hope that maybe, this time, I can find that “golden fish”, meaning something useful and as cheap as possible.

In all this years I didn’t have this chance, but tales of people that found what they were looking for, kept coming to my ears.

Now I think it depends what are you searching for.In general, I always compared this market with a “Kinder Surprise” egg that I never opened, but the excitement was always dragging me back, so I ended by going back almost every weekend.

I was never interested in the society that was moving there, until lately when street photography started to become a point of interest in, let’s say, my photographic endeavor.When I first took my camera with me, I was astonished about the new perspective that this place had to offer, because suddenly I started to change my focus from objects to humans. The world was very colorful.

My first visits as a wannabe photographer, made my ego explode, I felt special in that place, in a way I felt like a scientist who just discovered a new specimen, but who always wants to maintain a certain control over his new “pet”. Fortunately, I got over this phase quickly and I started to blend in the crowd, a very colorful one as I already said. The majority of people who were selling their goods, let’s say 65%, according to my estimation are poor people that are collecting all kind of stuff from western countries, stuff that people there throw away. Usually they don’t really look on what they gather, and when they do, they don’t really know the value of the goods, that is the reason that sometimes you may find the “golden fish” through their new belongings.

The other 35% are merchants, that scanned the people that are visiting this place and understood rapidly that there is also a demand for expensive things like: old furniture, antique stuff, branded clothes (on many occasions made in China with famous brands on them). Anyway, there is everything for everyone, you just have to know exactly what are you looking for and have to be armed with a lot of patience. The most interesting thing, from my point of view, is that this place has a unique characteristic: it brakes the inner borders of society that are built carefully in our minds, making all those who cross its edges equal.

About Sebastian Gruia

Sebastian Gruia, a 35 years old professional photographer from Romania. I’m interested in Photojournalism, Conceptual and Abstract photography and last but not least Wedding Photography. [Official Website]