"They Also Faced the Sea" RE-print

Installed originally in 2003, the group of 5 oversize photos that comprise "They Also Faced the Sea" were only meant to stand for less than a year.  Photographer Norma Holt had taken a series of black and white photo portraits of elder Portuguese women of Provincetown. Holt's interest had been to capture the matriarchal aspect of a fishing culture that traditionally celebrates the heroicism of the male and his encounter with the mighty sea. Friend and fellow artist Ewa Nogiec suggested Holt make massive prints of a select group and install them on the shingled warehouse at the end of Fisherman's Wharf. The result was an exhibition en plein air whose weathered substrate echoed the careworn lines in the women's faces, themselves etched from years of exposure and industry. As Ms. Nogiec has stated, these portraits are of our mothers. Their larger than life presence reminds us from whence we came and to whom we owe our humble beginnings.

Over a decade has passed under the watchful eyes of Almeda Segura, Eva Silva, Mary Jason, Bea Cabral and Frances Raymond.  One photo is gone entirely.  The visages of the others are pale, faded to a near memory, much as the Portuguese community itself from Provincetown.  With the decimation of the fishing industry, many of the Portuguese families who once populated the town have moved away. Their mark on the town diminishes with every passing year.  Norma Holt's photo installation has become an iconic landmark for Provincetown, a tribute to one part of the town's history that newcomers might easily overlook. These intrepid, frail faces greet the ferry as it rounds the bend of the breakwater; they face the sea as visitors depart. Stalwart guardians of our harbor, these women, these Portuguese women, must not fade from our consciousness, either figuratively or literally.

The restoration of  this art installation, replete with re-prints of Holt's original images,  is the first priority of the newly established community group, Provincetown 365.   P365,  as it is commonly known, brings together members of the Provincetown community from all walks of life; our primary interest is to nurture the yearround viability and creative spirit of the town we  each call home,  regardless if that home be for only three days or three generations.  We hope that you will consider donating as much -or as little- as you can to bring these symbols of Provincetown's illustrious heritage back into focus for the next decade of residents and visitors.
-Jennifer Cabral
Provincetown 365