Who says that photography needs to be beautiful? Did Instagram even exist in 2006? I enjoy shooting mundane everyday places like this discount supermarket. And yes I just bought some groceries.
So many people nowadays hunt for the perfect instagrammable photo spot, the perfect light, they use filters and techniques to produce silky smooth images. And you know this is fine. There is a place for ostentatious beauty.
But there is also be a place for the mundane, the everyday life, places where people actually live, work and enjoy their lives. This simple supermarket is such a place.
People from the nearby residential area buy their food here. They buy food which they end up enjoying with their families, alone in front of the TV or prepared and put in boxes at work.
The Uffizi will still be there in the future (I hope so) but places like these come and go and we will not remember them because they seem so unremarkable. That is why I like document such places. To remember that they are part of a beautiful life too.
This supermarket no longer exists. With gentrification came different customers and now this place is a Centro-Italia Supermercato. A store where you can buy Italian foods and specialties. I know someone from Italy and I’d love to show her this store, just to get her opinion if what there are selling there is just overpriced staples from Italian supermarkets or if it is really the good stuff.