Huam Traditional Market

A canopy of worn, corrugated metal sheets shelters the narrow, winding alleys of Huam Traditional Market. It started as a spontaneous gathering of street vendors in the nineteen sixties to serve the local neighborhood as residents moved into the newly built hillside housing projects. The stalls pack together so tightly that sunlight barely touches the ground. One local merchant, who has sold dried seaweed here for forty years, keeps a stool by her door to watch the steady stream of shoppers navigate the cramped space.