"Sea wolves" from the island of Paros/// Christian Stemper
Faces of fishermen in these pictures of the Austrian photographer Christian Stemper without words can tell thousands of stories.
Sea wolves from the Greek island of Paros every day go to sea on wooden boats, called names of wives and daughters. But, perhaps, soon this little world will cease to exist.
Austrian photographer Christian Stemper began to photograph fishermen from Paros back in 2010, when he first came to this small island in the Aegean Sea for a holiday. In the photo: the old Greek fisherman Janis Perentinos.
The photographer joined monochrome portraits of fishermen - their expressive rough faces contrasting with the black background - with colored images of their simple wooden boats that float in the ink waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
The dominance of large-scale fishing makes the hard work of these people, who are all sun-drenched, increasingly less paid. Because of this, many of them abandoned fishing after the EU offered money for abandoning its ancient craft. In addition, children of fishermen are increasingly looking for a better life outside this Mediterranean idyll.
"If I do not see the sea, I do not live," says fisherman Wagelis Parousis. "If I had to stay in Athens, I would not have survived a day." I would simply go mad. "
This is how strong the attachment of these people to the sea. "This is a special kind of people," says the photographer, who has documented the lives of local fishermen for five years. "Life is simple for them: it's a boat and the sea."
The photographer admitted that the fishermen at first did not want to participate in the project. However, over time, he persuaded them, although they reacted to everything happening more than indifferent.
"After I started work on the project, in 2012 I held an exhibition on Paros," says the photographer. - Then I invited all my "models" there, promising them to give them a portrait, which they specially printed for them. But the exhibition was visited only by one fisherman. Their families came-their wives and brothers. And the sea wolves themselves are not interested in all this. For them, life is the sea and the boat. And these people are happy. "
