ENTRY DESCRIPTION
When fishermen return from sea in the early hours of the morning, the harbor in Kilindoni (Mafia Island, Tanzania) bustles with activity, with hundreds of people moving into the water chest-deep in order to hustle or buy the catch. The lucky ones will leave with a basket full of fish, like the man that can be seen in the center of the image. This open air auction amid shouts and injunctions can be slightly surreal.
The scene is chaotic but also epic, allowing pictures that have the quality of a fresco.

This picture is part of my current work on coastal communities worldwide. Fish stocks are crashing all over the world, threatening the livelihood of countless fishing communities. This, coupled with a slow rise in sea levels, will have dramatic consequences on coastal communities worldwide, forcing many to abandon the coastal areas and to move into cities. I have been documenting these changes for the past 2 years now.

AUTHOR
I am a self-taught photographer who has been living and working in Africa for over 30 years, including long stays in countries such as Somalia, Mali, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, and Tanzania. I became a full-time professional in 1992, working as an Africa based photojournalist, shooting numerous picture stories for all sorts of magazines. ,

I like to think that I have a special connection to the African people (always speaking the local language and a keen interest in anthropology and ethnography), one that enables me to capture their essence. In the past most of my stories where about rare traditions that somehow linked man and wildlife or nature, but Africa has changed a lot in the last 30 years and now most of these traditions have disappeared. My recent work has been more personal and contemplative and less focused on picture stories. I have also moved away from color photography and only shoot in black and white.

back to gallery