Posts tagged ‘photographic tour in Guadeloupe’
Life of Gwada
How many subjects, bodies, faces, landscapes, situations I missed during my seven days in Guadeloupe. How many of them I tried to capture while driving around with the friends of Île du Monde on the whirling roads of Basse-Terre and Grande-Terre. Time’s up, looking forward for my return to you, Gwada. Many thanks to Josè, Stephanie, Daniel and his family for the exciting atmosphere during our stay on Guadeloupe.
Pedestrian crossing in Sainte-Rose
Street life in Pointe-à-Pitre
Our hats of Mare Gailard
Back from shopping in Beaumanoir
Funeral dress code in Staine-Anne
Running kid in Pointe-à-Pitre
Final thanks to the tree-frogs at 16°14’28.1″N 61°24’35.4″W – very welcome background music for my tropical nights.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
7. In need of protection
8. So lonely
9. Once we were
10. Caribbean grace
11. Resurrection will come
12. Art insurrection
13. Life of Gwada
Art insurrection
Funerary art, wall art, urban art. Every color gradient fits wall cracks, houses , graves. Sometimes, reality bends with fantasy in Guadeloupe
Rastafari ka players painted in Sainte-Anne
Giant house-graffiti in Pointe-à-Pitre
Kid in the box, Pointe-à-Pitre
At the bus stop, painted or real? in Saint-Anne
Exquisite black and white in Sainte-Anne cemetery
Big eyes of Pointe-à-Pitre
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
7. In need of protection
8. So lonely
9. Once we were
10. Caribbean grace
11. Resurrection will come
Resurrection will come
The East side of Pointe-à-Pitre likely had a gorgeous past. Unluckily, grants are not sufficient today for the recover and renovation of its French colonial style. In the meantime, colorful design and graffiti decorate almost every wall of the city, up to the red-light district. Waiting for a new Renaissance.
Artistic decoration of rusty fences in Pointe-à-Pitre
[..]The department of Guad[..]executes[..]enovation of the equip[..], Pointe-à-Pitre
Work in progress in Pointe-à-Pitre
Grave graveyard in Saint-François cemetery
Old and new at Pointe-à-Pitre harbor front
Scary house in the red-light district of Pointe-à-Pitre
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
7. In need of protection
8. So lonely
9. Once we were
10. Caribbean grace
Caribbean grace
Guadeloupe is music. Drums (ka) made of wood, plastic barrels, scrap parts; and lambi shells blown in the wind. Played in parks, at funerals, on graves and rooftops. The father of Gwo-ka (ka music) is Marcel Lollia, aka Vèlo from Pointe-à-Pitre: his statue is in the city center. Guadeloupe is also Indian music from the Nadron cerimonies and Cuban music, often played in Gwada dance clubs.
Monument to Marcel Lollia (Vélo), master of ka (drums) playing, Pointe-à-Pitre
Indian cultural week, Sainte-Anne
Ka players at a funeral, playing on the graves of the cemetery of Sainte-Anne
When a picture is not enough, play the movie and feel ka played on the rooftops of Saint-Anne cemetery graves
Ka players and dancer, Sainte-Anne
Drummers, Indian week festival in Saint-Anne
Dancing club in Sainte-Rose
When a picture is not enough, play the movie and feel Cuba in Guadeloupe
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
7. In need of protection
8. So lonely
9. Once we were
Once we were
Past present, present past. Every house, shell, statue reminds the history of Guadeloupe. Either houses or busts of Victor Schœlcher, the French slavery abolitionist. Or lambi shells decorating the graves of fishermen and poor people, when even bath tiles are too expensive.
House renovation, Pointe-à-Pitre
Boat spare parts, harbor of Saint-François
Priest and graves at Sainte-Anne cemetery
Barred house, Sainte-Anne
Lambi shells decorate the graves of poor people at the cemetery of Saint-François
The French slavery abolitionist Victor Schœlcher, Sainte-Anne
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
7. In need of protection
8. So lonely
So lonely
Lost in the cemetery of Saint-Anne. Wandering in the statue-less Place de la Victoire (stage to a guillotine during the French revolution) or staring at the burned down houses of Point-à-Pitre. On the busy motorways from Grande-Terre to Basse-Terre. Or just watching the sunset from Saint-François harbor. Moments of loneliness.
Place de la Victoire, Pointe-à-Pitre
Cemetery of Sainte-Anne
Fishermen at the harbor, Saint-François
(one of) burned house in downtown, Pointe-à-Pitre,
Reseller (of ?), motorway towards Sainte-Rose
Solo love, graffiti, Pointe-à-Pitre
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
7. In need of protection
In need of protection
Protection for human rights, bio-diversity, history and tradition. Protection is a word with several meanings in Guadeloupe. A recent history of blood shed to fight slavery and of worker immigration from all over the world, well documented in the museum Memorial ACTe, is at the base of Gwada modern society.
Entrance to the red-light district, Pointe-à-Pitre
The Memorial ACTe, part of UNESCO’s Slave Route Project, Pointe-à-Pitre
Sunny umbrellas of Pointe-à-Pitre
A vanilla plant climbing an incense tree in the jungle of Sainte-Rose
Vanilla plants, incense trees, termite nest, singing cicadas… the delicate network of a tropical jungle
Waiting for the bus at Morne-à-l’Eau
The Cathedral Saint Pierre et Saint Paul , Pointe-à-Pitre
Coconut shop on the motorway, Les Abymes,
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
6. I had a dream
I had a dream
Guadeloupe standard of living is among the highest in the eastern Caribbean. Bananas and sugarcane are the principal cash crops. Tourism is one of the strongest sources of income. Still, high prices due to the protected French market are among the causes for the weak economic improvement of the last decades. Guadeloupe is a place of contrasts, where pockets of poverty and neglected infrastructures are interspersed between amazing nature and friendly people.
Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” adapted to time and place, Pointe-à-Pitre
(Delicious) coconut sorbet must give way to a tourist bus at La pointe des châteaux
Colorful tiles for the graves of Saint-Francois
Commercial district of Pointe-à-Pitre
Banana market in the outskirts of Pointe-à-Pitre
Beach of Raisins Clairs, Saint-François
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Caribbean intangible cultural heritage
5. Guadeloupe on stage
Guadeloupe on stage
Colorful dresses and graceful silhouettes. In the background the exotic, Caribbean landscapes. A week on Guadeloupe surprises for its cultural diversity and lively ancient traditions. A historic representation of the Indian Ramayana myth welcomed me the day I landed. Brilliant graffiti cover walls and towns of the island. Wild sea shores and vivid sunsets: everything plays life on stage in Gwada.
Players and families in the backstage of the Indian week of culture in Sainte-Anne
Top left: ashes ceremony before Ramayana representation. Top right: the wise men from the mountain. Bottom left: Wedding ceremony. Bottom right: hunting demons
We love Guadeloupe (the Caribbean Butterfly) , graffiti in the town of Sainte-Anne
The cinema theater “La Renaissance” of Pointe-à-Pitre, opened in 1920, now closed
The rocky beach of Anse à Plume
Moving graffiti in Pointe-à-Pitre
Nights fall early in the Caribbeans, 5:30pm in Sainte-Anne
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
4. Gwada intangible cultural heritage
Gwada intangible cultural heritage
Intangible Cultural Heritage means the skills that communities recognize as part of their cultural identity. The Indian community on Guadeloupe is strong of 40,000 people. Most of them are descendant of those Indian workers that were offered a job on the island by the French state over two hundred years ago. After the abolition of slavery in 1794, the demand for workers on sugar cane, rum distillation, tobacco and coffee fields strongly increased in Guadeloupe. A solid migration from India, Vietnam and Lebanon have been supporting local productions from then on. The immigrants who chose to further stay in Guadeloupe maintained their cultural identity and mixed it with others, French continental included. Nowadays food, music and folklore on Guadeloupe are the result of this fusion.
Election of Guadeloupe Miss Teen of India, Schoelcher square, Sainte-Anne
Continental French craftsmen contribute to keeping traditions alive on Gwada: Cédric Coutellier runs a biological vanilla plantation in the tropical jungle near Sainte-Rose. Vanilla plants are epifite, meaning they climb over other tree stems to gain a place in the sun. Front right of Cedric and behind him each tree is climbed by one or more vanilla plants. Vanilla pods (still green) are in hist right hand.
Cédric Coutellier and his vanilla plantation in the tropical jungle, Sainte-Rose
Gwada fishermen still use traditional cages, in addition to modern fishing nets for catching their daily preys.
A fisherman in Saint-François harbor with modern (right) and traditional (left) nets/cages
At funeral ceremonies, as well as on the streets of Sainte-Anne it is not rare listening to the sound of Lambi (conch shells), blown by local players.
A Lambi (shell) player, cemetery of Sainte-Anne
When you pass by La pointe des châteaux don’t miss the local craftsmanship of palm tree hats. Jordan crafts also bowls and Frigatebirds made of the same leaf material. It will not stay green, but it will still look gorgeous.
A maker of traditional woven hats, La pointe des châteaux
If you are a photographer, it is worth learning a couple of words in French for shooting iconic pictures with locals. Je suis italien. Je suis photographe. Je voudrais faire une photo de vous. Et voilà, here is my knowledge of French language.
Painters, Sainte-Anne cemetery
The manioc ants at the feet of Cédric Coutellier in the jungle of Sainte-Rose
Manioc ants, tropical jungle, Sainte-Rose
Click each picture to zoom in.
Previous and last episodes:
1. My lady of Guadeloupe
2. Sea life of Gwada (Guadeloupe)
3. La Métropole
