Customer Reviews

Men at Sea

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Men At Sea by photojournalist and world traveler Jean Gaumy is a strikingly vivid, largely pictorial presentation of the life and work of a commercial fisherman surviving and working aboard deep sea trawlers. The unforgettable imagery of black-and-white photographs is combined with reproductions of hand-written log and journal entries. A truly remarkable book, and as close a glimpse to life at sea as one can get without personally living among the waves, Men At Sea is a strongly recommended acquisition for school and community library collections.

Jean Gaumy mentioned in the introduction, 'It'll come on its own. I don't know how. I want to go out to sea and the desire contains this seed. It can't be about reporting. It's about something else. I don't really know what. I'll have to describe. Simply describe. Avoid deception, the heroic vein. Stick with just man.'

It is a series of journey spreading across 1984 to 1998, in pursing for photographer's self-fulfillment. Doing things purely for oneself is great, and we can see Jean's total enthusiam into the process. Travelling with ordinary fishmen, everything is like adventures on those traditional trawlers. The process can be dangerous and fruitful. Excellent capture of environment in low light condition using high speed film, where you can see the magic of night and sea. It also includes excerpt from Jean's diary, hand-drawing, and page-clippings. Very rich media combining with visual images. We can taste some subtle changes of photographer's body and mind, which is behind the scene.

A raw and original presentation of images presents a powerful record of struggle between human and nature.

Forget Titanic. Jean Gaumy's are some moving images, from heart.