Identity on sale (Jordan, Amman)

Every morning in Amman, the same ritual takes place: the curtain rises on a day of sales. Here, it's literal. The merchant raises the canvas awning , gradually revealing his line of mannequins. This suspended moment creates an unintentionally burlesque scene, where the torsos remain camouflaged, as if they were not yet "ready to sell."

In Jordanian souks, the daily assembly and disassembly of shop fronts is almost theatrical. Many shops do not have permanent windows: everything is set up in the morning and taken down in the evening , including mannequins. These are sometimes referred to as shops with reversible facades , a common practice in older neighborhoods or those subject to flexible regulations on public space.

And what might seem like a comic scene is actually a system of urban adaptation : space saving, sun protection, nighttime security . In Amman, the informal is often more ingenious than the formal.