Fishermen

As a photographer i can't resist the beautiful triangular shape of the sails on the 'jangada' - the traditional fishing boats used by the local fishermen of the North East of Brazil. I love to get up at dawn to go to the beach and watch as they get their boats ready to go to sea on their great adventures, as they like to call their fishing trips. The basic design of these elegant vessels has hardly changed in hundreds of years, and they are pushed out to sea and pulled in by hand using wooden rollers and poles. The largest boats are so heavy it takes seven or eight men and a huge amount of effort to do this work. These fishermen are wonderful sailors and expert anglers who use only nylon lines, with small hooks on the end, played out through their hands to catch their fish. The bigger boats, with a crew of three or four, stay at sea for up to five days at a time, cooking on deck and sleeping inside the tiny space between the deck and the keel. Most of the time they are out in the blazing heat, with little cover from the tropical sun, and when it rains - which is not often - they leave the lines out and take shelter in the cramped hold until the rain passes. The large jangadas can bring in hundreds of kilos of fish to sell when they get lucky, but sometimes they return with barely enough to cover the expenses of the voyage. When i talk to them about their lives as fishermen and their adventures at sea, they always mention the hardship and the suffering they experience, so i ask them why they do it. They look me straight in the eye and proudly tell me that they do it simply because they love it.