Tuna Fishing, Trapani, Sicily, Italy

Currently not on view

Tuna Fishing, Trapani, Sicily, Italy

1991

Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, born 1944)

Salgado's epic international study of manual labor drew the photographer to the fishing town of Trapani, Sicily, in 1991. There he surveyed the centuries-old tuna-fishing methods that today remain under threat of elimination by aggressive forms of modern industrial fishing. Preparations for La Mattanza, the annual springtime harvest during which bluefin tuna is collected in the Mediterranean waters off Trapani, begins during the Christian observation of Holy Week. A celebration of economic promise for the townspeople combines with traditional Easter ritual, resulting in a spectacular public festival brimming with a curious mix of religious and marine symbolism.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Tuna Fishing, Trapani, Sicily, Italy
From the series Workers, An Archaeology of the Industrial Age, 1986-91

Date:

1991

Artist:

Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, born 1944)

Medium:

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions:

Image: 13 13/16 x 20 7/8 inches (35.1 x 53 cm) Sheet: 19 9/16 x 23 3/4inches (49.7 x 60.3cm)

Classification:

Photographs

Credit Line:

Gift of Eastman Kodak Company, 1999

Accession Number:

1999-21-51

Geography:

Photograph taken in Trapani, Sicily, Italy, Europe

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Currently not on view