It is difficult to remember the days of “real photography” when we didn’t have phones that took fabulous pictures or when we had to bring rolls of film to the photo shop to get them developed. Those of us barely deserving of the amateur photographer title have accumulated lots of photos of varying degrees of average quality for the sole purpose of keeping good memories intact and in order to share them in toay’s digital age, our boxes of paper pictures have to be converted yet again and this time, to a digital product.
The photos in this gallery were taken in 1997 during a combined program of photography and French on the French Caribbean island of Martinique, or as it was originally known, Madinina.
I have had to scan — with a rather mediocre scanner — the few shots that were decent on paper and therefore have a rather limited selection to offer you. However, I hope that you will see that the charms expected of a Caribbean island are present in Martinique. These charms, added to the limited English-speaking presence, make Martinique a paradise for French language learners! Hint, hint…
Fort-de-France, the capital, is approximately half way between Martinique’s furthest northern and southern points; Saint-Pierre — le Paris des Antilles until the volcano eruption of 1902 — is located in the northern more mountainous and luscious region than the drier South. Most of the renowned beaches are found around the village of Sainte-Anne. Many of the photos in this album were taken in and around these three towns and their respective countryside although the program had us stride through the entire island in search of photography subjects, local historians, literature professors, farmers’ markets, and of course… fabulous beaches.
