Pêcheurs d’Asie

Asian fishermen The song of the poet resounds in art by the eternal curiosity of the man towards his contemporaries. Photography, because it is humanist, explores the horizons of life of humanity in all latitudes. In love with Asia, I have traveled its territories tirelessly for more than 20 years to bear witness to the discreet and laborious life of fishermen in parallel with my long-term project on elephants and men. Through my approach, I try to make visible and in some way give a space of existence to all those people who do not gain notoriety, far from the clichés conveyed by tourist imagery. My project took me to Laos, Thailand, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka. Everywhere, in my travels, I photographed fishing, an economic and nourishing activity of primary importance. From the beaches of the Indian Ocean, the banks of the Tonle Sap and Inle Lake, from the banks of the Mekong River to the ports of Kerala, it is the thankless, exhausting and sometimes dangerous work of the fishermen that interests me. With a generous and benevolent eye, I brought back the portrait of men at work, but also of women in their essential activities. Images taken with great respect, where the dignity of the actors in this story emerges. The story is beautiful but the image is not complicit in the excesses of certain forms of irresponsible fishing. Through this work I implicitly underline the harmful effects of a devastating industrial practice for the planet, whose dramatic long-term consequences can be imagined.