I was really grateful recently to be given access to document an area that the general public don’t often see. Im referring to Truro’s main livestock market. One of only two now remaining in Cornwall. I was under the impression that such markets might be a private space for bidders and buyers but with the help from Andrew, Lodge & Thomas’s main auctioneer, that was far from the truth. Ive wanted to shoot and document the behind the scenes look at one of these markets for some time now this what I saw and documented in black and white of course and on film. Timeless look you might say.
Truro livestock market is held on a Wednesday just outside of Truro. The sales are a mixture of cattle, sheep, pigs of all types brought in from the local areas and being sold throughout the UK. Prior to the sale getting underway, farmers, buyers etc get the opportunity to preview the livestock. Bidding gets under way at 10am and the bidding ring begins to fill up just prior. Andrew stands in what I guess is called the bidding box overlooking the buyers/sellers and the cattle sale gets underway.
If you’ve ever had the chance to listen to an auctioneers voice once bidding gets underway, then you’ll know they make no sense to you whatsoever. The buyers, they understand it all as does Andrews admin assistant that sits next to him writing down all of the winning bids. Andrews decades of knowledge and experience see’s all that goes on. The nod of the head, the roll of the eyes, the slight raise of the finger, all of these signals he picks up which adds to the vocal bidding process.
In an others area of the market which is vast, some of Andrews colleagues are fronting the sale of other livestock auctions to include sheep and calves. These follow the same format but my apologies here Andrew, I understood them to some degree in terms of the price and how the bidding was progressing. I was very difficult to understand your auction banter. You knew what was going so no issues there.
It was really interesting to watch and to document and shoot the whole process of the auction from the delivery of the livestock, their care, the movement of all of the cattle/livestock on the day and their well being. It was helped along the way by the professionalism of all of the staff involved alongside side Andrew. A big thank you to all concerned… RD