In the intimacy of French fishermen — Blind Magazine

In 1931, during a stay in Normandy, Simone Weil accompanied the Lecarpentiers, a family of fishermen, to learn their technique and learn more about the reality of manual work. A few years later, in a small town in Portugal, she experienced a remarkable encounter with the spirit of Christianity while listening to fishermen’s wives singing traditional songs.

In Honfleur and Trouville, photographing life on fishing boatsI understood that fishing manages to combine the spiritual and manual aspect of work, as few other human activities can do.

The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

Norman fishermen often spend days at sea. From October to March they fish for scallops, then fish from April to September, after a break devoted to boat maintenance. Shellfish harvesting is a complex process. They must be sorted, after having hoisted the nets; the fishermen measure all the shells with a special standard, the smallest are thrown back into the sea, while the largest are kept, known as royal scallops.

Before storing them, they are carefully cleaned to get a higher price. I went to sea on fishing boats named the Kiff, L’Eclipse de Trouville, Persévérance, Morjolene and Petit Maylise de Honfleur.

The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

Generally, the crew consists of three to four people. The captain, who is often the owner of the boat, is the oldest and most experienced. It is not uncommon for some members to be very young, and many Senegalese also work on board. I spent a lot of time with the Petit Maylise crew.

Benoit is the first one I met. It was a Friday morning, the day dedicated to repairing boats and nets after days spent at sea. I saw from afar this solitary figure leaning over the nets, bathed in the soft light of the rare sunny days of Normandy . A kind of deep spirituality emanated from this scene. So I introduced myself to Benoit and we hit it off right away, then I met the other crew members, Captain Jean-Philippe, Aurélien and the young Mathis and Dylan.

The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

I also spent many days at sea with Nico, Rudy and Falli, the crew of Perseverance. During the fish season, we stayed three days on board. The young Leo accompanied us, it was one of the first times that he went to sea. He was not yet 18 years old, and had embarked with us at the end of his internship in high school. The owner of Persévérance, Sébastien, is from the Saiter family, fishermen for generations. His brothers Tony and Frank also have boats in Trouville of which they are the captains. During the night, the men took turns resting, but as they approached places suitable for fishing, a sound signal awakened the whole crew, reminding the men at work to hoist the nets.

Life on these Norman boats seems to be regulated like a play, in a setting of nets and metal cables. Each gesture of the fishermen harmonizes with the breath of the wind, each has a particular meaning, perpetuating an ancestral ritual. Sometimes this ritual is that of a difficult, tiring but loyal fight, sometimes it is a tradition of contemplation of nature and dialogue with it. Proudly devoted to their task, the fishermen scan the horizon, questioning the signals sent to them by the waves, as if they were oracles guiding them in their actions. At sea, surrounded by infinity, fishermen experience extreme loneliness, but also the strength of the ties that unite them to each other, much deeper than a simple working relationship: it is friendship, fraternity , and the feeling of teamwork.

The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

The seabed conceals treasures and hides tragedies, the sea can give us many things, but also deprive us of everything. I would like to dedicate this project to the memory of Thierry, Akim and Allan. Three young fishermen lost their lives in a shipwreck on the night of February 3 to 4, off Le Havre.

For centuries, the know-how of fishermen has been passed down from generation to generation on the Normandy coast. Today, several factors are testing the love of these people for their work, and their determination to accomplish their task: the expansion of industrial fishing, the increase in the price of fuel, the problems linked to Brexit , and the project to build wind turbines at sea, on fishing routes. All of them told me about the difficulty of continuing their activities today, and told me that they would not recommend their children to choose the same profession.

The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

Fishing has created a community where we live goodbyes and reunions, where we share joys and sorrows, expectations and efforts, but above all, the same experience of existence at sea, a unique existence where we welcome together the rising sun and the falling night. This deep sense of belonging and community, I felt it during the sailors’ party in Honfleur. It takes place on the weekend of Pentecost.

On the morning of the first day, the friends and families of the fishermen all embark together, they eat and drink in a festive atmosphere. The boats are decorated on this occasion. During the day, we go to sea for the blessing, but above all to throw in the waves wreaths of flowers in memory of those lost at sea, and this moment is particularly moving for many families, whose members have perished in this way.

The second day is dedicated to the parade. The children of fishermen and sailors, accompanied by their parents, parade through the city, carrying model ships on their shoulders. The procession leaves from the Notre-Dame de Grâce chapel. Built in the 17th century, this chapel houses many paintings and models of ships offered in ex-voto by sailors. And from the esplanade surrounding the chapel, there is a very beautiful view of the Seine estuary, the port of Le Havre and the Normandy bridge.

The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

“Le Petit Souffle”, by Ciro Battiloro, is presented at the Festival Boards Contact in Deauville until January 3, 2023.

The Little Breath.  © Ciro Battiloro
The Little Breath. © Ciro Battiloro

In the intimacy of French fishermen — Blind Magazine