STUDIO D-18
Photographed by Raquel Natalicchio — Written by Sam Kelly & Raquel Natalicchio for the Houston Chronicle.
At a north Houston flea market, these photographers are documenting Latino culture in a new way. To read the full article in Spanish, click here.
It’s hard to stand out at the flea market that has everything, but deep in the bowels of the pulga on Houston’s Airline Drive, Darío De León and Max Hummels have created something new. The two photographers set up shop earlier this year in a pair of stalls next to vendors hawking power drills and rosaries, baseball cleats and neon work vests. They called it Studio D18, for its location in the cramped hallways of the Buey y Vaca Flea Market, named for the ox and beef tacos that the market’s proprietor first started slinging at the site back in the 1970s.
It’s not the most obvious place for a portrait studio, but the choice was intentional. De León, 27, and Hummels, 30, see the flea market for what it is — a focal point of Houston’s Mexican community and a lifeline for the thousands who come every weekend to shop for clothing, groceries, electronics and sundry doodads.
“There’s no other place like this, it’s my favorite place in Houston,” De León said. “The way people speak, the music, the smells, the environment … I can fully let my guard down and be myself and be accepted and have fun, and that’s beautiful.”
