Goa's immense natural beauty and charm deserves the credit for inspiring this work. Frederick Noronha is a journalist based in Goa, and is also an amateur photographer. These photographs were taken in the summer of 1997, in and around North Goa. Thanks are due to Canon for the excellent lense, and to Pamela D'Mello for the support, encouragement, ideas and patience amidst the experiments with film.
Frederick Noronha
House # 784
Near Lourdes Convent
Saligao, 403511 Bardez
Goa India. Ph 832.276190
Email : fred@bom2.vsnl.net.in
JOLLY FISHERMEN: Click a hundred photos, these fishermen smiled, when their permission was sought, as they went about mending their nets.
PANORAMIC VIEW: From the Aguada hilltop. Villages seen are Nerul's renamed Coco Beach, the Verem naval headquarters (white buildings on the neighbouring hill) and Candolim to the left.
TO CHRIST, INDIAN-STYLE: This artistic work is the creation of an European nun, whose brush translates Biblical pages into Indian-style art. These wallpaintings can be viewed at the Baga retreat house, run by the Jesuits.
OLD... AND NEW: Speedboats nestle in the Sinquerim-Nerul river, while traditional country-crafts (called "vodhe") straddle the shore.
MODERN TIMES: Too much of beauty is obviously a bad thing for Goa. Tourism and the real-estate boom here triggered off destruction of the environment, particularly along the coast. Photo shows a age-old banyan tree felled to make way for real-estate 'developments' in the background.
BEACON OF HOPE: You can visit this old fort and lighthouse at Aguada. It's flashing light is visible for miles along the North Goa coast each evening. Visitors are allowed before 5 pm, for a nominal fee.
ANOTHER DAY BIDS ADIEU: Sunset along the Baga cove. Some beaches are still quiet and desolate. Thankfully, hotel- free too.
VILLAGE GOA: Haystack, cattle, coconut-trees and the piggy-toilet. That says it all.
WAITING FOR THE SHOWERS: This tree seems parched, and is waiting for the monsoons, which deluge Goa between June and September each year. By May-end, everyone is fed-up with the heat, and eagerly look forward to the welcome showers. Porvorim provided the locale for this picture.
GREEN GOA: Despite the real estate boom, some parts of Goa have managed to retain their greenery.
SUNDAY OUT: With the tourists leaving Goa by summer, locals from surrounding villages and nearby towns make a bee-line to the beaches. Photo shows a crowded Sunday evening at Baga.
FAITHFUL TO THE PAST: This elderly salt-maker is engrossed in her work at the Arpora salt-pans. Salt has been one of Goa's famous products over the centuries, and many villages made a living from the salt ... of the earth.
BEACHSIDE PALMS: Goa's swaying coconut trees make the coast what it is.
COLOURS OF SUMMER: Just before the monsoon arrives in early June, the late summer skies take on dramatic hues. Photo shows a silhouette at Saligao.
MIGRANTS IN GOA: Migrant women workers, who have been attracted to the growing prosperity of this small state, sweat it out at a railway construction site in Revora.
COCONUT PALMS bid adieu to a setting sun.
SHEAVES OF GOLD COME IN: Fields at Mayem have just been harvested for the second-crop. Paddy is the staple food of the people of Goa, who can't imagine days without fish, curry and rice.
