The Last Few
In her series ‘The Last Few’, photographer Sarah Louise Ramsay documents the lives of Havana’s last remaining Balseros float tube fishing community. With nothing more than the inner tubes from truck tires, they head out to the open sea early in the morning to provide for their families.
Text & Photography Sarah Louise Ramsay
By law the bulk of fish caught in Cuban waters must be handed to the state for distribution amongst the people. However, some of the poorest in Havana are brave enough to provide for their families by venturing out to sea using nothing more than the inner tubes from trucks and tractors as makeshift fishing Balseros rafts .
They head out under the cloak of clandestine early morning darkness walking the empty streets until they reach the Malecon and the sea. They meet, swap stories and compare provisions – coffee, tobacco, rum, hand-lines and bait. The light lifts and it is time to lower themselves and all they have and need over the wall to the rocks below. They slip but steady themselves, this is treacherous work. The waves crash around them. This is an exacting process. Wave sets must be counted, the winds and breaks in the clouds considered. Their entrance to the water must be timed to perfection, despite their low centre of gravity, tubes have been known to be upended.
Once in the water there is a feeling of calm and freedom, a sense that they have entered a world that is wholly their own. They move quickly away from the shore’s prying eyes but will eventually meet up once more to fish together. There is safety in numbers, safety knowing that someone else is looking out for you should you fall asleep and drift away. Danger is everywhere especially from the darker creatures that swim below…
A good catch cures every ache and every tired muscle and despite the efforts of the day they help each other climb the Malecon wall and as darkness falls head home to feed their waiting families and friends.
Every voyage is both an adventure and an escape.
There used to many, now there are just a few.
About Sarah
Sarah Louise Ramsay is an award winning Photographer and Image Maker. Sarah started her career the hard way in the 90's assisting in studios and on location.
The award-winning personal projects she created back then were the catalysts for her first advertising commissions, and since those days her work as a photographer has taken her all over the world.
She has spent years precariously leaning out of cars whilst shooting other vehicles, climbed dunes in Australia for British Airways and had a camera smashed out of her hand by a rearing horse at the San Juan Festival in Minorca.
She sometimes describes her work as a never-ending series of adventures including fending off the advances of a renegade cowboy, hanging out of a helicopter, shooting salmon lochs for Waitrose, sleeping in a swag bag in Australia’s Snowy mountains whilst photographing Brumbies and simultaneously raising her three amazing daughters.
Over the years she has continued to win numerous awards. In 2021 she was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and in 2022 at the Venice International Art Fair. She is currently a finalist in 2023 38th AOP Photography awards with her series ‘The Last Few.’
Personal work means everything to Sarah. “When I get out there and shoot with only a lightweight portable studio in a backpack, well then I am in my happy place.”
She thrives when she is able to push boundaries and expectations and her recent return to Cuba was both an adventure and a way to honour a strong connection to water, something she has been exploring for the last few years.
To see more of her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram
READ NEXT
