This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Flea Market Beauty & the Lady in the Doorway

How do you see the things around you? Do you find beauty where there appears to be none? Come with me to Fells Point and the Dundalk Flea Market. Let's look at things differently.

So, I recently visited the Dundalk Flea Market on North Point Road. I have to be honest. From the parking lot looking at the building and the random items sitting on tables or blankets and in boxes I was not overly impressed with what I saw.

I had come to the flea market to see if I could find true treasures to shoot with my camera. I like to take photographs of items without touching them or arranging them because I want to see how things in life just end up where they are whether its people, objects or nature.

From a distance, what I saw looked like junk or trash just tagged with stickers trying to be sold for what is probably now pennies on the original dollars.

Find out what's happening in Dundalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

 It occurred to me that things other than flea market items are often viewed the same way.

I remember being in Fells Point one day and I saw a woman who looked disheveled, drug addicted, homeless and sickly. People walked by her many times and made no effort to notice her at all. I took several pictures of her mostly because I didn’t like her being unnoticed.

Several months later I walked back through Fells Point as I often do and took pictures of whatever interested me. As I walked down the street I passed a woman sitting in a doorway. I looked at her and realized she was the same woman I had shot months before. As I approached her she said, “Excuse me…”

 “Yes?” I said.

Find out what's happening in Dundalkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Can you help me?” Before I could tell her I had no cash – since I assumed that was the question that would follow – she reached into a plastic bag and said, “Can you take a picture?”

I smiled and said, “Sure! I’d be happy to take your picture.” As I put my camera to my eye she continued to look through her bag. Finally, she pulled something out and held it out to me in her too thin fingers.

“No. You take something with this camera,” she said, handing me a disposable camera. I put that camera to my eye and began to aim at her when she stopped me again.

“No. Take a different picture. Take something in Baltimore and then give me the camera back.”

I did as I was instructed and then gave her the camera. She placed it back in her plastic bag and our conversation was finished. She never asked me for anything else. As I smiled at her and began to walk away I heard three young punks behind me start to call her names and say things very disrespectful. I turned back, walked straight up to them and told them to …. well, let’s just say I strongly suggested they stop talking to her. They had no idea that the names they called her omitted the one that may have fit her best…artist.

 Why share this?

As I stood in front of the Flea Market, I was reminded that not all things are as they appear. That woman that people never notice except to assume the worst actually had within her some level of artistic vision. I wondered how many people she had asked to take a photo for her and how she chose her selection of people to take the pictures. I wonder if she ever had that camera developed.

I often wished I would have offered to develop those photos for her but I haven’t seen her since that day in the doorway. I decided after that to make sure I honored her in a different way. I took a picture of her in that doorway and made it my own art and I have just shared a small piece of her story.

Now I will share with you how I saw that Dundalk Flea Market once I adjusted my own vision and artistic scope. I hope after you read this, you take a moment to look deeper at something that others may walk past. I hope after you visit the link below and see those photos you then look at things a bit differently and find beauty in things too.

http://blogsofcyn.blogspot.com/

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?