In addition to my professional work as documentary photographer and photojournalist, I am at heart a street photographer, on a quest to portray the imperfect beauty, solitary moments, and quiet chaos of everyday life where we come together in public spaces. In my current home of Quito, Ecuador - one of the most dynamic gathering places is the indoor/outdoor Mercado de San Roque - where vendors sell everything from cuyes (guinea pigs, a traditional Andean delicacy) to produce to traditional Andean medicinal remedies to furniture to second hand (often stolen) household and electronic items; where thousands of city residents converge every weekend to bargain for the city’s best deals; where the children that aren’t working alongside their parents pass the time chasing each other up and down the dark passageways of the sprawling market and out into the surrounding streets.
The neighborhood in which the market is the nucleus, San Roque, is one of the most historic in Quito, and still has one of the largest indigenous populations in the city, of which many men and women work in the market. It also has a rebellious history, as it was the area from which a revolt against the Spanish colonial government was launched in the early 1800’s.
A sense of this past lives on here in this mercado, where one can most vividly see, hear, and feel the heartbeat of this unique city.
