Image Focus

The fishermen of Stromboli were once the stronghold of their community. Now, only about ten men are still devoted to the work, with each of them preserving an ancient and precious craft.

Stromboli is one of seven volcanic islands that make up the Aeolian archipelago off Sicily's northern coast. It is known as the "Lighthouse of the Mediterranean" for its steady towering glow as the island rises over 920 meters and falls below sea level by about 2,000 meters. Stromboli also reigns as one of the world's most active volcanoes, having spewed fountains of lava almost continuously for nearly 2,500 years.

Forming part of a series featured in an article about the island of Stromboli published in National Geographic magazine, in this particular shot, I was able to capture one of the best-known fishermen from the island is retrieving nets from his boat after spending a long night at sea.

Throughout the project, I visited the island several times and instantly knew that the fishermen would be among my protagonists. The day before the shoot, I went to the small port to ask permission to photograph them and to find out when they would return from fishing. Returning with the fish at dawn is one of the most important moments of island life, and I did not want to miss it.

I shot the image with the Alpha 7R III and the FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM which is hands down my favourite lens to use. To capture the documentary images I wanted, I needed to be close to the subject and feel involved, which the 16-35mm lens allows me to do. Photos that show the relationship between humans and the environment interest me most, and the wide-angle lens enabled me to document both the subjects in the image and the world around them with ease.

I slightly overexposed the image to achieve detail in the shadows casted across the fisherman's face, shooting at ISO 100 to get the highest quality from the high-resolution sensor of the Alpha 7R III. I wanted to create a shallow depth of field too, to blur the background and focus on the fisherman's hands and gestures. To achieve this look, I opened up the lens's aperture a little to f/3.2 and used a fast shutter speed of 1/2500 sec to freeze any movement in the background.

The incredible Continuous Autofocus and Face Detection features on the Alpha 7R III allowed me to concentrate on the fisherman's actions and gestures, meaning I could live in the moment knowing that the Autofocus of the Alpha 7R III would focus the lens perfectly on the face of the fisherman.

As I looked through the viewfinder, I immediately knew this was one of the images I was looking for to tell the story of these men. The incredible sunrise over the sea, the loneliness, strength, and simplicity in the gesture of this fisherman all came together to form the perfect narrative all within one frame – a shot I would not have been able to achieve if it wasn’t for my trusty Sony gear!