NikonGear'23
Images => Themes, Portfolio Series, PaW, or PaM => Topic started by: Bruno Schroder on January 24, 2025, 16:25:05
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When I retired, in 2021, we were looking for a family home where we could enjoy a different atmosphere than our garden. The Opal Coast, with its special light and long uncrowded beaches, seemed like the ideal place. We easily found a house in Ambleteuse, a small, quiet seaside town and we've been going there regularly for 3 years now.
The long beaches, nature reserves, many hectares of protected dunes and the light of the Côte d'Opale fit in well with my current interest in biodiversity, photography and family holidays.
Last year, 13 people died on these beaches. A further 2 bodies washed ashore.
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Ambleteuse is very close to the UK. From home, it's easier to pick up BBC Radio than France Inter. In fine weather, Dover is visible on the horizon, and sometimes even Dungeness.
With dunes to hide in while waiting for the smugglers to inflate the boats and launch them, Ambleteuse and the neighboring towns are ideal starting points for trying to reach England.
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At high tide, in fine weather, with no wind and calm seas, it is not unusual to see 60 people trying to board an inflatable boat designed for 10. They drop anything they don't need for the crossing, such as blankets or baby nappies, or anything that might prevent them from swimming if they fall overboard: shoes and, despite the cold, warm clothes. They walk in the water or swim to reach the boat and try to climb the slippery rubber wall. This process can be fatal, especially for children and babies. The water is cold and hypothermia strikes quickly. Some have life jackets, others pool floats, but most have nothing to help them in the water.
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Once the boat is full, it heads for another beach from where the smugglers depart, and the crossing begins.
If they are lucky, they will reach the British coast 5 or 6 hours later. If not, they may be rescued by patrol boats, if spotted early enough, or they may die. In 2024, at least 75 people died trying to reach the UK from France. The exact number is not known, as a further 17 bodies washed ashore as a result of unattended fatalities.
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And when you walk the beach, you find what they've left behind.
Warm clothes, shoes, pool float packing, baby nappies ...
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.
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Remains fading in the sand or ending in the trash
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At high tide, in fine weather, with no wind and calm seas, it is not unusual to see 60 people trying to board an inflatable boat designed for 10. They drop anything they don't need for the crossing, such as blankets or baby nappies, or anything that might prevent them from swimming if they fall overboard: shoes and, despite the cold, warm clothes. They walk in the water or swim to reach the boat and try to climb the slippery rubber wall. This process can be fatal, especially for children and babies. The water is cold and hypothermia strikes quickly. Some have life jackets, others pool floats, but most have nothing to help them in the water.
They are not stopped, are they not?! Europe is lost!
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Very impressive documentary shots, Bruno
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Very much appreciate this, Bruno. Fine, neutral presentation. Let’s hope humanity is not lost.
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Photo Journalism at its finest Bruno.
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Very much appreciate this, Bruno. Fine, neutral presentation. Let’s hope humanity is not lost.
+1, it is something we should not forget
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+1, it is something we should not forget
+2, a very special journalistic documentation.
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+2, a very special journalistic documentation.
+3, Heartbreaking, it leaves me speechless
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Thank you all for the kind comments.
Humanity is not lost, Thomas. The region is unambiguously far right with deputies from a political party with a strong anti-immigrants program, but when an event like this happen, I only hear compassion, even from those very vocal against migrants.
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Great work Bruno.
One reads of these people in the Australian press, but your images of the people and their discarded items have brought home to me their plight even more strongly than have the press articles.
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I appreciate the documentation, free of breathless media editing and hype. A sense of what it really looks like.
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I appreciate the documentation, free of breathless media editing and hype. A sense of what it really looks like.
I echo Keith's comments too Bruno.
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Excellent photojournalism, Bruno.
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Thank you, guys.
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+1 to Keith's remarks - my reaction as well.
I appreciate the documentation, free of breathless media editing and hype. A sense of what it really looks like.
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This morning they came by here and left this. They are coming from Africa to Spain.
NIKKOR 50 mm 1.2 lens
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Thanks for sharing, Arturo. It is stuff they leave after they succeeded to reach Spain, I guess. As here, they have taken time to load abandoned clothes with stones, to make then easier to find by someone else in need.
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Thank you, Bruno, for the reminder
I fear there will be many more people fleeing from other human's behaviour and climate change. What we see today is only a very small fraction of what we will see in the future.
The interesting thing for me is, that the rich, who seem to cause most of this trouble, seem least compassionate of their poor brother's and sister's needs.
If we currently embark into a world with less compassion: Where will it take us?
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Thanks for sharing, Arturo. It is stuff they leave after they succeeded to reach Spain, I guess. As here, they have taken time to load abandoned clothes with stones, to make then easier to find by someone else in need.
Yesterday morning, the group of Africans was stopped by two police cars. Then, when I was returning from Campillo de Adentro, I saw the backpacks and bags near the tree. I think they left it like that with the idea of going back to get their things.
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NIKON NIKKOR 50mm 1:2
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Very good photo journalism! What a tragic world we live in
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Very good photo journalism! What a tragic world we live in
Thanks Erik, when you see things like this, it makes you think.
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Thank you, Frank and Erik.
Personally, I remain optimistic. In a region that gave an absolute majority to the far-right party, when ‘voters’ are confronted with migrants, all I see, the comments I hear, is compassion. Yet statistically, at least half of those who watch the departure have voted for the far right. It's very different to be confronted with real people/families struggling to escape doom than to react to the media or social networks.
And as a photographer, we can socialise what we see.
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Sea Rescue team looking for bodies on the shoreline.
Earlier this week, I was waken up by roaring engines and blue flashlights. The Sea Rescue Team had received a call from a fishing boat signaling a sea incident. They deployed 100 meters from our home. They didn’t find a body, but a migrant drowned that night, 50 km up north.
Cross posted in the March 2025 thread https://nikongear.net/revival/index.php?topic=11158.new#new