Vânzător
de pâlnii pentru uleiul negustorilor din piaţă
Man selling funnels for the sun flower oil sold
by the merchants at the market
This is not the photo of a haberdasher, simply
because even if he is in the street, he does not try
to trade his merchandise. On the contrary, he seems
to be in a hurry (which lets us think that he is
heading towards a certain destination) and he looks
concerned (he does not even see the photographer,
although the close up of the image shows that
Ionescu had to get close enough in order to be able
to take such a photo). The man is a real tin man,
invaded by funnels and buckets that he carries by
means of a rudimentary hooking mechanism that he
props on his shoulder.
The text that accompanies the photo betrays his
identity: he sells (which does not necessarily imply
the status of manufacturer- he could be a mere
intermediary) funnels and buckets (we are glad to
have been able to identify the tools) for the oil
(we discover that we have lost a part of the code,
since we do not see the usefulness of such
containers) of the merchants at the market (we have
not only lost the objects’ function, but also the
purpose they were meant for). Thus, one can infer
the importance of the text accompanying the image.
On one hand, it allows the accurate decoding of the
visual information and on the other hand it
clarifies the atmosphere status of Ionescu’ s eye,
that helps him find his way instantaneously within
this universe of tools- a status that we have lost
for good.
