Saturday, September 3, 2011

Past and Present

Today I want to talk about something that revokes the past and the present. There are things that did not change after a long time, generations after generations. Well maybe there are slight changes due to the modern standard of living in comparison. Yes I want to share a street photograph I took few weeks ago. Make the jump to read on.



Few weeks ago, I was out doing street photography in Little India. It was early morning and most shops were not opened for business yet, typically on Sunday. I like to walk to my "favorite" area and to my surprise I came across this Indian man pouring milk into a glass bottle along with a large aluminum container beside him. Here's the photograph that I took.

Modern day Milk Seller
© Martin Liew Photography

Isn't it fascinating to see a traditional milk seller in this modern age? He drives a luxury car to deliver the milk. Back in the old days, the Indian diary seller would traverse the street on-foot from Queen Street towards Victoria Street. Always with him were his two cows, one brown and the other white. If you wanted to buy some milk, he would stoop down and milk it straight from the cow for you. He would then bottle the milk into a glass bottle right in front of you. Here's the image:

Picture from National Archives of Singapore. Circa 1950-1965.

There are goat milk seller, too riding their bicycles on the streets selling goat milk. The image shown below was taken in 1985.

Picture from National Archives of Singapore

There are always new surprises in Little India and you never know what you will find. There's a curry spices manufacturer along the shop houses, even traditional grocery shop which looks like this.

Traditional Grocery Shop in the 21st Century
© Martin Liew Photography

Too many changes going on in rapid rate especially in our modern city. Previously I was blogging about an old Kampung-style coffee stall. located in the heart of Little India, which was gone. Well there are also new things emerging in Little India where it is still the favorite location for most street photographers, taking interesting pictures of daily lives.

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