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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Ninety-Six: From the Persian Gulf to the Andaman Sea > “Just take a look,” Gold Market, Dubai, United Arab Republic, 2016
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30-NOV-2016

“Just take a look,” Gold Market, Dubai, United Arab Republic, 2016

The name “Gold Market” is designed purely for marketing purposes. This “market” in Dubai is actually an extremely long avenue of tourist shops selling everything from jewelry to jade. Here a “greeter” tries to convince potential customers to enter his shop. I catch this greeter and his potential customers at a decisive moment. For the “greeter,” it is the instant between success or failure. For the tourists, it is a moment of polite avoidance.

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Phil Douglis24-Feb-2017 21:40
hanks, Marisa. That also explains the enormous popularity of cell phone camera "selfies" -- people even buy long poles called "selfie sticks" that they use to make pictures of themselves standing in front of something that validates their presence at a place, and thus makes them feel more important as they flash that image to other cell phones all over the world. Words, indeed, are not enough. Travelers want to prove the point visually, over and over and over again. Selfies are made for gratification and documentation, two well known purposes for photography. They are rarely, if ever, made to express a substantive idea.
Marisa Taddia 24-Feb-2017 16:01
It's very interesting your last quote "buy things to validate that experience". In a way, people expect the photographs and the typical souvenirs to prove that you've been there. As if the words and experiences conveyed were not enough testimony of a journey.
Phil Douglis22-Feb-2017 05:53
Yes, Marisa, those mannequins are symbols of Middle Eastern lifestyle, and tourists visit such places to see, and sometimes buy things, to validate that experience.
Marisa Taddia 08-Feb-2017 12:48
What caught my eye the first time I saw this photograph was that, behind the seller who invites the tourist to enter his store, appear a woman and two children mannequins dressed in typical attire. In a way, it symbolizes the entire population welcoming those tourists who transit the market.
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