Talad in Southeast Asia: Ichiba アジアいちば探歩する (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9784887732025)

This series of black-and-white photographs explores the neighborhood markets (ichiba in Japanese, talad in Thai language) in Southeast and East Asia. This is a world where goods are sold directly from vendor to customer. Everything is done by hand. Sometimes the cash register is a basket suspended on a spring rope. The buyers and sellers negotiate the prices. From the viewpoint of a Westerner who has lived in New York and Tokyo, I was astonished to find such open-air morning markets and night markets, first in Bangkok and subsequently throughout the region, both in large cities and small villages. My goal for this series is to create a window into the life of these ichiba, focusing on the people there as well as the social communities. Perhaps this series of photographs will portray the spirit of the ichiba while they still exist.