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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Twenty One: The Marketplace -- crossroads of a community. > Thanaka Logs, Chinatown, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
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Thanaka Logs, Chinatown, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005

A young woman gets some reading in while waiting for people to buy her Thanaka logs, which come from a small tree grown in Upper Burma. Women cut the bark off the log, grind it on a grinding stone, and add a few drops of water to make a yellow paste, which is then applied as makeup, just as she has. The paste dries to a yellow powder, which conditions the skin and provides protection from the sun. To tell this marketplace story, I needed three elements. The woman, who sells and uses the product herself, is the subject. The fact that she reads while selling is incongruous. The logs are the context for the image, as well as the face paint, which in this case is very subtle yet still visible in the detail. It was also important that I was able to relate this woman to her task against a black background, which provides good contrast.


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Phil Douglis18-Feb-2006 00:18
Thanks, John. I enjoy non-technical comments such as yours very much. They tell me that my pictures are striking an emotional chord, and that is more important to me than pixel perfection.
John Chu 13-Feb-2006 05:36
Phil, this picture to me is not at all about content or composition. But it evoked a cherished but forgotten, childhood memory. I was born in Yangon and lived there until I was 8 years old. For me, your picture sent me back to the time when my mum put this on my face to ward of the sun and the heat. I can almost smell the subtle but heady aroma of the sandalwood. Thanks for the memories...
Phil Douglis14-Apr-2005 18:53
You are right, Jen. Marketplace photography is indeed all about telling stories by relating products to both seller and purchaser. In this case, its the seller I am featuring, and she is not even selling at this moment. Instead, she is incongruously reading a book. You bring up another incongruity -- the nature of the product itself. Logs are usually sold to burn, to warm, to cook, to shelter. Not to paint faces. Yet here in Burma, these logs are ground up to produce makeup and sunscreen.
Jennifer Zhou14-Apr-2005 08:45
After applying so many different ways to tell stories about marketplace, you use a brand new way here in this picture----to relate products to the seller. As someone from North, those logs are incongruous itself, becuase logs for us are usually to make fire, warm the houses up and to protect people from winters. But here, it is for the makeup and is to protect people from the sun. Very interesting!

Jen
Phil Douglis01-Mar-2005 02:18
Yes, it is an environmental portrait, Mo, yet used here in the context of expressing ideas about marketplaces. In this case it is, as you've said here, all about waiting.
monique jansen28-Feb-2005 14:09
good environmental portrait - markets are about waiting for a sale.
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