PROVINCETOWN — The larger-than-life photographs of five Portuguese women on Fisherman’s Wharf are now down to only three images, but that will change this spring.
The installation “They Also Faced the Sea” has suffered from the same harsh elements that have weathered the real-life faces of local fishermen.
The portrait of Almeda Segura was destroyed by the weather, according to the website iamprovincetown.com, which is maintained by Ewa Nogiec. She helped create the installation of Norma Holt’s powerful photographs of the matriarchs who kept life moving on land while the men of Provincetown’s fishing fleet worked the sea.
During the spring a second photograph of the smiling face of Frances Raymond was removed when a clip that secured the image to its frame was damaged in a windstorm, said Ann Lagasse, an owner of Fisherman’s Wharf.
Lagasse said the picture is safely stored and will be put back on the side of the old fish house in April.
“They are very revered and we want to take good care of these ladies,” Lagasse said.
The installation was originally placed on Fisherman’s Wharf in 2003 and was replaced in 2015 after the first set of images became too faded.
“Portuguese women faced the sea in many ways: as mothers, wives, sisters, friends and family of fishermen, as cooks, laundresses, nurses, teachers and telephone operators,” according to I Am Provincetown. “They kept the culture alive, sang the songs, danced the dances, buried the dead, gave birth, cooked and kept the church at the center of their lives. Above all, they were resilient through good times and bad, their strength and courage easily matching and supporting that of their male seafaring counterparts.”
