The fruit vendors
The fruit vendors, Alexandria, Egypt, December 2021
Roaming through the Alexandrine streets and daydreaming of ancient treasures buried underneath my feet - I spot two fruit vendors, in the late afternoon sun. The men in the distance are in the center of my viewfinder. I don’t like the composition, so I put the camera away.
As I turn around - “HEY, HEY YOU!” shouting in the background.
Ignore it. Keep walking. A bad feeling - People in Egypt are often very suspicious of cameras – not out of malice but out of fear.
“HEY, STOP” The shouting is approaching accompanied by the sound of hurried steps.
I breathe in - once I almost got into a fist fi- I am pulled out of my thoughts by a hand on my shoulder and a knife pointed at me. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Are you from the government?”
I take a step back and look at the agitated man and smile.
“I am a photographer, and I found you looking handsome“
He visibly relaxes, takes his hand off my shoulder. The fruit knife disappears.
“I thought you were from the government”
“Why is that problem?”
“You know- they made fruit cars illegal here, but we have nowhere else to go, if they see us, we could lose our cart”
“These scumbags! How dare they? This is your street!”
“That’s what I am saying! You get me”
“Don’t worry I am with you” steering the topic away from politics “Would like me to take your and your friends’ pictures?” Ignoring the knife from moments earlier.
While taking their portraits, suddenly the knife is back. This time pointed at his partner. It is his sixth finger. I show them the picture – “I love it! Please send it to me”. As the Bluetooth transmission finishes, a warm smile appears on his face.
“Thank you! Do you want an orange?” His sixth finger points at the oranges.
The first payment I am ever offered for a picture of mine. An Orange. This is a milestone.
As I turn out around the next corner, Chekhov and his gun come to my mind, maybe he was wrong and in the end the randomness of Egypt prevails.
“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there”
