Commission
Ed Kashi in Madagascar
Ed Kashi has recently returned from Madagascar where he has been shooting for the 2009 Prix Pictet Commission. Kashi has been commissioned to visit Madagascar with the Azafady team in order to produce a series of photographs that will highlight many of the issues that Azafady is focusing on in this unique and endangered environment.
During his stay in Madagascar Ed kept a diary, here are a few extracts with a preview of his photographs.
....We left early to head north to St. Luce, which is a fishing village that Azafady has a camp site and operations in. I went with Brett, the founder of Azafady, a driver and Lala, a local man who speaks good English and works with them. He’s great, and will be my main guide on most days. Once we got to St. Luce we went straight for the beach to photograph fishermen returning from the sea. They go out in small pirogues that seem quite precarious. They used to fish closer to the shore but as fish stocks have dwindled they must now go further out. They catch mainly lobsters for the European market and various fish. There aren’t many rules in this game and the ones that do exist aren’t followed. For instance, I noticed the kids would take all the female and pregnant lobsters, filled underneath with their bright orange eggs and scoop the larvae out. This is apparently illegal, as it obviously reduces the lobster stocks by killing all those potential lobsters. It’s absolutely disgusting and disturbing and profoundly disappointing to see this. This is not the work of a huge company or a Japanese fishing trawler. These are simple, poor and ignorant people who are eking out a meager living. The agent for the French company that will take these lobsters back to the capital and then fly them to Europe, doesn’t seem to care either. We are doomed on this earth unless we get our collective act together and we’re quickly destroying so many other species in the process.
We then went into the forest to capture tavy, or the burning of forest to clear for planting fields. This is also illegal, as it further destroys the remaining forests of Madagascar. 90% of this island nation’s forests are gone!
We then finished for the day by hanging in the village, which is totally low key. Very reminiscent of the poor and undeveloped villages of the Niger Delta, but without the wealth producing resource of oil which skews the situation there. After a simple dinner of rice and chicken curry, Brett and his Malagasy boys went to drink rum in the village until past midnight. Brett has lived here for over a decade, speaks the local language and is an Aussie that knows how to get by. I went to bed, which was a small tent surrounded by mosquitoes and who knows what else.
13/01/10
After a fitful night of sleep, I awoke at 5am, per our plan, to get an early start. The weather was overcast and rainy once again, so we drank tea with condensed milk and waited it out. When the weather finally broke, we went to the beach to catch more fishermen returning from the sea. I believe I made some beautiful images. Satisfied, we then went for a short drive and hike to a vista that would allow us to photograph more tavy/burning with an amazing view of virgin forest and denuded forest in the same frame. Also a success I believe!
I’ve also gotten a bunch of small sweet scenes. It’s so easy to photograph here. The people are welcoming, easygoing and incredibly sweet. I can’t get over this. I am so used to people being difficult and suspicious. What a relief! I have only been told no once so far, and that was at the end of the journey back today. We passed a group of villagers running and chanting down the dirt road. It was a funeral or a ceremony of moving the bones of ancestors to another burial place. We drove up ahead and got out of the vehicle and positioned myself behind two trees to capture the fleeting scene. I possibly got a nice image of the people running by carrying the white cloaked bones on a stretcher. At the end of the group a man looked at me and said..."no no" but not in a hostile way.
I’m back in my hotel, hot, dirty and wasted...but feeling great and ready for more action.
