Photo of the week: The trawler "Rowanlea"

What a great surprise to see this photo here. i have this book, the english version of it and it is like a poem, a dark poem of life. jean gaumys texts in the book go along so well with the photos! Thank you!

Comment posted by Lea Kast on July 26, 2007

very interesting photo with a lot of details to look at. Wonderful!

Comment posted by Johan on July 26, 2007

Really a great book, both for the photos themselves and for the way they are arranged on the pages. The excerpts from the author diaries add a great human touch and sort of backstage to the pictures.

Comment posted by Abele Quaregna on July 26, 2007

Well, I have this book, and I think it's fantastic.
Great idea to spent so long time onboard :) I envy Gaumy!

Another great things, it's the original black and white grain films, today with digital camera, it's impossibile to get that effect. I'm imaging a great wall poster of that picture....

Comment posted by Filippo on July 26, 2007

It reminds me of Corey Arnold's excellent fishing work: http://www.coreyfishes.com/

Comment posted by jeroen on July 26, 2007

I DONOT HAVE THIS BOOK-BUT AFTER GO THROUGH THE PHOTOGRAPHS, IT IS A POEM OF LIFE AS WELL AS THE POEM OF MANKIND..........CHEERS

- NILANJAN RAY
- 103, MOTILAL NEHRU ROAD,
2ND FLOOR, KOLKATA-700029
WEST BENGAL
INDIA

Comment posted by NILANJAN RAY on July 26, 2007

I have this book (french version). I don't have many photo books, can't afford them, but saw this at occasion price amongst a big pile of very bad books that no one wants to buy, when I was killing some time while waiting for someone. It looked like a mistake, it shouldn't be there. Either that or some divine force put it there at that price so I had no excuse but take it.

Fantastic indeed, a true pearl - very impressive. I'm suspicious because I have a thing for the sea, so I wouldn't say "one of the most...". impressiveness is very relative and depends on the perspective at hand.

Comment posted by Tomé Duarte on July 26, 2007

These images are wonderful!
Thanks for introducing me to the images by Jean Gaumy.

Comment posted by Vikrant Kumar on July 26, 2007

A wonderful choice... Gaumy's Men at Sea is one of my favorite photo books of all time and the grainy photos interspersed with nautical charts and diary make for a highly personal look at a vanishing part of fishing history.

Comment posted by Washington DC Photographer on July 26, 2007

Great photo (beatifull B&W), great book, great Jean Gaumy. His work is journalistic and poetical, dramatical and sensible. And I like this grain, the action, the sea.

Comment posted by Rogério Kreidlow on July 26, 2007

Martin, I picked up this book years ago and it's one of my favorites taking a prominent place on my bookshelf. I love this book and have to agree that it's one of most impressive photography books. Thanks for posting and letting other people know about Gaumy's work. --Larry

Comment posted by Larry Hayden on July 26, 2007

I remember first seeing Jean's work in LFI August 2004. The first thing that crossed my mind was, that if Rodinal were a sea this is what it would look like. The work was very courageous and by viewing the photographs I could feel the power of the sea and the struggle of these men.

Comment posted by Paul Rigas on July 26, 2007

Wow - what an incredibly hard life that must be. So well documented here. Thanks for turning me on to someone I had never heard of. I'm really loving these regular blog posts - thank you, Martin!!

Comment posted by Katia Roberts on July 26, 2007

Amazing how many of the images in which Jean Gaumy managed to keep a level horizon. There are so many land-based photographers who seem to have an inner-ear disorder and are incapable of presenting a level horizon with a hand-held camera.

On a less snarky note, as much as I love the dramatic on-deck images, my favorites in this collection are the interior scenes, with the meals being consumed under stark light, the workers completely exhausted -- I can feel it in my bones. As a collection, these images run a very wide emotional expanse.

Comment posted by Terry Carroll on July 27, 2007

Bonjour,
I am touched to read at home in Fécamp (a little harbourg in Normandy, France) these words you wrote about one these pictures I did years ago. Thanks to you and to Martin Fuchs.
Just one word to say the influence for this story of the human and powerfull "Man of Aran", the Robert FLAHETY movie.
It is because some Story Tellers like him or Pierre PERRAULT (Canada) with his wonderfull movies "Pour la Suite du Monde" or "Le Règne du Jour" than I did the choice to be a photographer and later a movie maker.
I feel important time to time to know from who or from where comes the "inspiration" and, partly, what is influencing a photographer , a movie maker, any "creatives" or in my case a "gatherer".
Jean Gaumy

Comment posted by Jean GAUMY on July 29, 2007

I am in awe!! I love the www. It is so amazing to see these pictures and then read these comments! I have the pdn september 2003 issue, Home At Sea. Fantastic photographer!! Always looking at those shots, and the portrait is cool!
Thank you Jean Gaumy.
magnum+++

Comment posted by w robert angell on July 29, 2007

My Dad bought this trawler in 1967 and renamed it Rowanlea after which time it fished out of Aberdeen, Scotland in the North Sea. Prior to that it was called The Welsh Prince. It's incredible to think it is still doing what it was built to do - it was built in 1963 in Milford, England.

Comment posted by Alison on February 23, 2008