2023-05-01 12:38:49
Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) — In her stunning images of the Faroe Islands, a remote archipelago wedged between Iceland and her native Norway, photographer Andrea Westfang has captured the islanders, their harsh and unforgiving livelihoods, and their windswept landscapes.
Fishing boats travel across the frozen seas. Clouds shade the rocky mountains and steep villages. Clothes and shoes are smeared with the blood of slaughtered livestock and marine animals, while many expendable tools hang from the walls of traditional wooden buildings.
Westwang’s new book, “Atlantic Cowboy,” weaves the innate relationship between the Faroe Islands and their surroundings. The images show in parallel dramatic landscapes reminiscent of the harsh climatic conditions of the Faroe Islands and small remote settlements in front of the nearby mountains.
“I don’t shoot landscapes, but, just like I photograph people, I look for a mood when I shoot a landscape,” Westfang told CNN. “I try to think of landscapes as a kind of portraiture, or a scene that expresses emotion in some way.” .
The images of Westwang also reveal another difficult aspect of life in the Faroe Islands, which may have been first inhabited by Irish monks in the sixth century, and that is that its citizens are almost exclusively male.
Although much of the Faroese economy revolves around physically demanding jobs, traditionally filled by men, the islands’ fishing industry alone employs 15% of the workforce.
Westfing had been to the islands several times a year for six years, training her lens on the lives and societies of single men on the islands. It showed them while they were plucking the feathers of sea birds, grazing goats, or dragging the carcasses of slaughtered “pilot” whales ashore.
Whale meat was once an important part of the diet in the Faroe Islands, although the country’s controversial whaling and dolphin hunting is now sparking global outrage.
On the other hand, young women often choose to study or work in Copenhagen. Westwang learned that many young women never returned. According to World Bank data, only 48.2% of the autonomous region’s population was female in 2021, making it among the most gender imbalanced places in Europe.
For Westwang, this dynamic presented “an interesting opportunity to do a project centered around men”. “As a photographer, I’m often assigned to shoot stories dealing with women’s health, women’s issues, which are very important, but I was curious to turn the camera in a different direction,” she explained.
masculinity evolution
Faroese women’s economic prospects are now more optimistic than in the 1990s, when thousands of people left amid economic collapse caused in part by shrinking fish stocks. Thanks to the growth of the tourism and services sectors, per capita GDP has tripled since 2000 and is now on par with that of the United States.
The government has invested in recent years in gender equality and employment initiatives in hopes of making the islands more attractive to women. They “tried to make it a little easier as a single mother,” Westfang added, citing the expanded offerings at Capital University and the increased acceptance of remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The female photographer added that the shortage of women was not so apparent in the Faroese capital, Tórshavn, although it became “quite evident” when traveling to smaller villages. The social life of these coastal communities often revolved around ports, and Westfang spent time visiting the informal meeting places where “the men hang out and have a beer and talk”.
But Westwang’s sensitive portraits also offer a candid shot of the men in their homes. I took pictures of many of them sitting or lying alone on sofas, and took pictures of others with pets.
In interviews, some of which are included in her book, she sheds light on the realities of life in a male-dominated society. An unmarried man said to her: “I beg the Lord to find a wife… but he may not have heard me.”
However, the photographer believes the men she documented were not alone, thanks in part to the close-knit nature of Faroese families.
As one 40-year-old man told her, “Strong family ties become a surrogate. I already have a family, even though I don’t have a wife and children. When you have an extended, close-knit family, you have the freedom to be yourself and find peace with that.”
The photographer said that one of the men she interviewed told her that “the Faroe Islands are the perfect playground for men”.
The title “Atlantic Cowboy” is a term borrowed from a 1997 book of the same title, and was later used by Feroz Jaini, a professor of anthropology at the University of the Faroe Islands who studies gender dynamics in the country and wrote the introduction to Westwang’s book.
“It’s a place where you can fish, be outdoors, and enjoy absolute freedom,” Westwang said.
The photographer added that decades of imbalanced demographics have contributed to building a national identity that continues to celebrate the virtues of strength and fortitude.
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