Exhibition FILETS OBSCURS (DARK NETS) at FAIT & CAUSE Gallery


This post is also available in: French

– 2017 –

Nine weeks reporting on the subject of industrial overfishing in West Africa, on board the Greenpeace boat Esperanza…

The international organization for the defense of the environment, Greenpeace, commissioned me as photographer to follow their operation “Hope” in West Africa in 2017. An odyssey on the high seas between Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Guinea Conakry.
As these countries lack the necessary resources, the marine zones that we covered are rarely patrolled. For this operation, Greenpeace provided logistical support for a dozen fisheries inspectors, mandated by their respective governments, to allow them to control ships present in the Exclusive Economic Zones that extend 320km off the coast of the countries concerned. A helicopter combed the vast area of the operation to localize the ships, which we then approached using inflatable boats launched from the Esperanza.
In my role as photographer-observer, I participated in all the 21 patrol flights and I accompanied the inspectors on board 37 trawlers of various nationalities to photograph the proceedings of the controls.
Eleven ships were detained and redirected to port, caught in the act of committing serious offences. This alarming offender rate of 30% confirmed the suspicions of pillage of resources in a context of blatant and uninhibited corruption.
Industrial fishing organizations are now sufficiently well equipped to empty the oceans. Everywhere there are those who cheat to serve their own short-term interests, even if that means stealing resources from the world’s poorest populations and eliminating their traditional ways of fishing.

On the numerous decks that we visited, we could hear the sounds of the never-ending agony of thousands of marine creatures torn away from their natural habitat with unheard-of mechanical violence…. We witnessed the terrible waste of fish, “collateral damage”, killed for nothing because they were of no value in the markets that the ship owners worked in.

As if that was not enough, this abuse of animals and of the environment goes on in a context of human exploitation where not only the fish are menaced…. Health and safety conditions on many boats were from another age.
During this intense operation, I had the privilege to live some exceptional moments close to a world of which few people are aware, hidden as it is beyond the horizon. I hope that my photographs convey something of that world…

Pierre Gleizes


Biography
Born in Paris in 1956, Pierre Gleizes became a photographer having abandoned his studies in agriculture…
In 1978, he was the photographic assistant to the audiovisual department of Yves Saint-Laurent / Charles of the Ritz, and then in 1979, worked as photographer for the Ministry of Culture on the archeological dig at Orléans cathedral.
From 1980 to 1984, he was the official photographer for Greenpeace and set up their photographic library. He participated in many of their campaigns on the world’s oceans – whale hunting, seal hunting, pollution, nuclear testing….
From 1984 to 1990, he worked as photo-journalist for Associated Press. “2200 news subjects covered in the space of seven years. Lots of travelling, with my camera bag beside my bed, shots taken almost instantaneously in all circumstances to get the perfect image, the race against the clock to meet the publishing deadlines of the world’s press… it left me out of breath, but it was a fabulous hands-on training experience”.
Between 1991 and 1998, he took on the role of reporter-investigator at the Environmental Investigation Agency for which he tracked poachers of wild animals in Africa, Siberia and Japan. Investigation, discretion, risky assignments… the E.I.A. used his photographs to illustrate the investigative reports provided to delegations attending international conventions, from lobbies to the highest levels of government.
From 1991 to 2017, he continued his work with Greenpeace, embarking on thirteen of the organisation’s vessels in the course of 180 documentaries.
Pierre Gleizes, an independent photographer, has lived since 2009 as a nomad on the French fluvial network aboard his boat, Nicéphore. His experience, often gained in hostile or turbulent conditions, with Associated Press, Greenpeace, and the E.I.A, has helped him to develop a sense of patience, reactivity and a cool head as well as technical capabilities adapted to all situations. All these talents are of use to him in his personal approach to his subjects and their environment, adapted to his taste for the unexpected in his photographs.
His photographs are distributed by the RÉA agency, in Paris, since 1998.

 



REDES OSCURAS

– 2017 –

Nueve semanas de reportaje fotográfico sobre la pesca industrial en África occidental a bordo del barco Esperanza, de Greenpeace …

Encomendado por la organización internacional del medioambiente Greenpeace, he seguido como fotógrafo su campaña ”Espoir” (Esperanza) en África Occidental, en 2017. Un viaje en alta mar entre Cabo Verde, Sierra Leona, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau y Guinea Conakry.
Los países mencionados no cuentan con los medios necesarios de vigilancia, por lo cual, las áreas marinas que hemos atravesado son muy raras veces controladas. Con este objetivo, Greenpeace ha puesto a disposición una docena de inspectores de pesca comisionados por sus gobiernos respectivos, con un dispositivo logístico que les permita controlar los buques presentes en sus aguas territoriales, las ZEE (zonas económicas exclusivas) que se extienden a lo largo de 320 km frente a la costa de estos estados soberanos. Un helicóptero facilitó la localización de los barcos dispersos en estos inmensos territorios marítimos y una vez ubicados, nos acercabamos a ellos en el Esperanza para abordarlos luego en botes neumáticos.

Es como fotógrafo que pude observar todos los fraudes realizados en este contexto, participando a 21 patrullas aéreas y acompañando a los inspectores a bordo de 37 barcos de pesca (arrastreros) de todas las nacionalidades, para poder así fotografiar los procedimientos de control.
Once embarcaciones fueron arrestadas por delitos graves y enviadas al puerto, es decir 30% de los infractores de los códigos de pesca. Un promedio alarmante que confirma la sospecha del saqueo de recursos en un entorno de corrupción desinhibida.
La industria pesquera dispone hoy de medios suficientes para vaciar los océanos. En todas partes, los bandidos de la pesca permanecen al asecho para servir mejor sus intereses, inclusive para robar los recursos pesqueros de las poblaciones más pobres del mundo y aniquilar así su modo de pesca artesanal. Lo cual genera problemas sociales y económicos graves.

Sobre las cubiertas de los barcos, hemos escuchado el clamor de la interminable agonía de miles de animales marinos arrebatados de su medio natural, con una violencia mecánica increíble … Y hemos sido testigos del enorme desperdicio de peces ”muertos por nada”, estas capturas llamadas ”accesorias”, no son comercializables en los mercados y son tiradas al mar como desechos.
Este maltrato animal y ambiental se desarrolla, como si no fuese suficiente, en un contexto de explotación humana, donde los peces no son los únicos amenazados … En muchos barcos, hemos encontrado tripulaciones trabajando en condiciones de salud y de seguridad indignas de nuestro siglo.

Durante este intenso reportaje, tuve el privilegio de experimentar momentos de proximidad excepcional con un mundo poco conocido, ya que generalmente inaccesible detrás del horizonte. Espero que mis fotografías contribuyan a la toma de conciencia de esta realidad …

Pierre Gleizes

Photographs by GLEIZES Pierre