week39:

 

© Viktoria Gitzl

1/30 s
f/ 4.0
iso 400
focal length: 18 mm
5184 x 3456 @ 72 ppi
color profile: sRGB
document typ: JPEG file
camera model: canon eos 550d


Fish auction, 06:30 am,  Fiskhamn Gothenburg

A big hall, 2 degrees centigrade, the floor of concrete is wet, countless boxes with fish and shellfish, stand in file, regular according to a certain pattern.
The traders, in dark jackets, warmly dressed, almost excluding men, gather around a part of these boxes and wait for the opening bid of the man in the red jacket, the auctioneer. Over and over again I could observe how hands reach in one of the numerous boxes, take out some of the pink /orange shrimps and peel them with skilful technology. The meat walks in the mouth, the bowl falls to ground. The traders try and taste the product.
In the hall it is nearly quiet. Engines of forklift are to be heard, as well as the voices of the auctioneers. The traders themselves do not shout to offer, they only nod.  Thus box per box, or pile per pile were weighed on site and add a note of paper, which mark the trader. He later will collect his auction product by an elevating platform truck.
After 1.5 hours everything is over, the fish is already loaded, the hall is again empty, up to the next morning.