The Art of Visual Storytelling
Nic Compton’s article about the French boat restorer Benoît Cayla and his gang of itinerant colleagues, beginning on page 60, is a fascinating study of possibility—of what can happen when a group of skilled people unite around a common cause. Here’s Nic’s introduction to the group: “In Lerwick, on the Scottish isle of Shetland, during the summer of 2022, as many as 15 people at a time worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, to restore the 1904 Zulu-class fishing boat MAGGIE HELEN. … They worked for free because they believed passionately in the project and wanted to see the vessel sailing again. Some hoped to join her at sea; others were just passing through and enjoyed working with a group of like-minded people.”
Nic’s initial description of this story, when he pitched it to us, was compelling enough in its originality. Then he introduced me to the stunning work of the photographer Nedjma Berder, who has been following Benoît and his colleagues through several projects and voyages, and that sealed the deal. These images were a sublimely evocative and thorough piece of photojournalism. They were a perfect complement to Nic’s words. One of them appears on the cover of this issue.
Photojournalism is the art and process of storytelling through photography, and Nedjma’s images indeed tell a story. So do Peter Brauné’s photographs accompanying Pat Mundus’s account of the exquisite pocket cruiser DATESY built by Donn Costanzo—a renowned boatbuilder who built the boat for his own retirement. In her article, Pat examines the question, “How does a lifetime of experience with exquisite yachts influence the choice and construction of a 20-footer?” She answers that question in prose; Peter does so in photographs. He does this so thoroughly that, when reviewing the layout, we were hard-pressed to delete even one of his images to make room for one of KATIE, the design’s namesake, which the designer-builder Harry Bryan built for his own retirement. In the spirit of completing the visuals of this remarkable project, I’ll stop here to make space for Benjamin Mendlowitz’s wonderful portrait of KATIE (above), with Harry at the helm.
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Editor of WoodenBoat Magazine