Ilove the farmers market held on Nicollet Mall in downtownMinneapolis--it's open every Thursday from late April through sometimein October. The colors and the vendors are lively, the cubicle denizenscome down from the skyways, some of the street musicians come out andplay for the love of music (hoping to make a couple of bucks, too)... it all makes for a great place to get in some street photography. Of course you've always got a couple of panhandlers adding tothe texture of the urban fabric (though some of them are a little toowell-cared-for to be believably homeless).
Note the pillow he's sitting on, the brand-name smoke, the vitaminwater, the leather jacket with no tears, the lack of wear on the wheeled soft cooler, the clean and combed beard trimmed to look scruffy...He made about $12 disappear up his sleeve with the speed of a stage magician in the 5 minutes I watched him from the large square bench I was resting on. At that rate, he easily made a couple hundred over the 2.5-hour lunch rush--better than most of the office workers that were dropping money for him make in a day.
This guy was playing mariachi music in the sun; at the other end of the block this particular week, an African gentleman in kente cloth was playing a djembe.
These guys were drawing a small crowd with the wonderful zydeco-style music they were playing. It spoke to the joy of being outside on a sunny day in early May, even if it was still a little chilly...
On this particular day, Kenny (above) was playing blues, a perfect match to the light rain that was falling. Though the rain was dripping off his battered trumpet, he set up his music stand in a bus shelter, since the buses were being detoured over to Hennepin while Nicollet Mall was being repaved. The lack of passersby didn't seem to dampen his enthusiasm for playing, though (below).
