Resistance

This was the first day of June, but the weather was still very cold. I was on the LaScie peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada. I was making a photo trip with two topics in mind: houses abandoned by fishermens' family, and icebergs. Iceberg were not frequent that year and led to disappointment. However, finding houses abandoned by fishermen was easy with the help of local people. For centuries, fishing was the main industry of this poverty-stricken province of Canada. However, about 30 years ago, a moratorium on cod fishing put 30,000 people out of work. It was a disaster on this island with little resources and a small population. Nowadays, the number of fishermen is a small fraction of what it used to be as many families never came back. Such houses built on the rock, with their own warf, have become architectures of the past. More recent houses in Newfoundland look like North-American bungalows and don't have this traditional fishermen's family look. In fact, a considerable number of such history-full houses have collapsed in the sea due to sea ice, winds, and strong waves. This lonely house, without a way to get in or to get out, illustrates the last architectural vestiges of a difficult and unique fishing past. No one knows how long this house will keep resisting the forces of nature if it still does! I submitted this photograph in the historic architecture section because it conveys what we usually don't see: poverty and hardiness in popular architecture. It is IMHO a testimonial of a style of architecture that represents the historic nature of Newfoundland.