Garum

Photos and text: © Antonio González Caro

  • About the work: I live in Conil de la Frontera, one of four villages of Cadiz “ Spain” (Conil, Zahara, Tarifa and Barbate), where this type of fishing gear works around the world, (in Morocco too, but differently). Since I finish my studies photography felt the need to document this issue. My idea was to tell a story about “ The Almadraba ”, but in a different way, a new perspective and deeper, avoiding superficial images that always show the same, the fishing moment.

    This theme has been covered many times, so I wanted to show images that have energy and visual aesthetics, creating an atmosphere that interests viewers.

    This work I have done during 2011 - 2013, and has been really exciting to live with them all these days. During the days of fishing at night, watching the tuna boat locked at sea to fish the next day morning. Many days he lived with them at that time, fishing, dining at the boats and sleeping in really small beds. That helped me to better document my work and gain more confidence with fishermen and feel one of them.

  • Garum: (2011-2013) "Almadraba" is the name given to a type of ancient fishing art that has existed since Phoenician times. Off the southern Spanish coast, in the springtime, the arrival of the migrating bluefin tuna is eagerly awaited. The bluefin tuna is the wildest, fiercest variety, with the largest specimens approaching 500 kg (~1,000 lbs.). This project shows fishing in Conil, Cadiz, during the 2013 fishing season.

    The system of "almadraba" consists of hundred kilometers of giant anchors and many interlocking systems of nets. The complicated apparatus is transported on the boats and eventually formed into a deadly maze through which the tuna are corralled. At the end of the maze, there begins a struggle between man and nature.

    The boats gather in a circle, while hundreds of tunas desperately splash the water with their tails. As the intensity rises, the water seems to boil, forming an image of an overstretched force. Fishermen begin to slowly raise the nets—the men's bruised and aching bodies excited by the hope of a good catch.

    After the battle, with the sea dyed red, comes the calm, which then gives way to silence.