In a time of iconic change we need to look beyond overly romanticised images of place. In the case of the hawker we need to look beyond the nostalgia and memory invoked by the theatre of the street. Only then are we able to see the individual, the person with a unique life beyond their franchised trade.

Under these close examinations we can then begin to hear the hawkers’ voices strain under the repetition of their calls, and see the pressures of poverty and survival etched into their skin. These portraits are entombed with the mortality of the street hawker. They imply the death of the clichéd image of the street hawker and serve as documentation of a last generation. That when these people die so does the hawkers trade.

By elevating the hawkers’ calls above the din of the street the recordings also celebrate the songs and capture some of the rich oral tradition being lost as the city modernises.