Gouda cheese fair

Here Dutch farmer cheese is traded every Thursday throughout the tourist season. By farmers who’ve dressed up - as farmers. Flitting around them in their white caps and red socks are the traditional Dutch cheese girls. Their male counterparts attract far fewer admiring glances but they’re here to do the heavy lifting: a round of cheese weighs fifteen kilograms. Deals are done by slapping hands, as they have been for centuries. On trust that the account will be settled as agreed later in the café. In real life that’s hardly possible any more, but our longing for the human dimension cannot be stilled.