Table Skirts - A Visual Survey of the Use of Oilcloth in Paris Street Markets

Oilcloth, Mainly Striped, Says: LOOK AT ME!........... LOOK AT ME!......... BUY MY FRUIT!
Leaving Not So Empty Handed

While I only occasionally buy anything at the street market I always walk away with something.
However, I am disappointed, this season, to have found none of the Rambo Franc apples.
I have not left the market with a Rambo Franc in hand.
Only the apples with the big names, but that’s fine.

My focus is upon the striped oilcloth of the booths, how it buckles and parts.
I like how light sometimes passes through it and how the old,
much-used cloth ages and wrinkles,
turning darker where it cracks.
I love the red and white,
the green and white,
the blue and white, the yellow and white of the oilcloth.

Colors are paired with white.
There is never a red and green nor blue and yellow table skirt or apron.
The potatoes come and go.
Fish laid out on melting ice are as transient as the ice.
Apples vary as weeks pass.
Only the striped oilcloth is a constant.
I part each visit, my camera filled with stripes.

Or solid colors, especially yellow.

......................

Rainy Market at Place Monge

Striped and solid color oil cloths
catch my eye at the street market

in just the intended way
They are flash

Otherwise, how would
the barkers draw you into their stalls

One potato two potato
same as the rest

Even the backs of the stalls can entice you
to look at what is on the other side

It is now drizzling, and I take cover
Choosing between four peaches

PREVIEW the full photobook via the following link: https://www.blurb.com/books/11832923-o-i-l-c-l-o-t-h

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