Norma Holt, Photographic Proofs

As described on ProvincetownArtistRegistry.com, 'Norma Holt has been a photographer for 50 years. She has photographed celebrities and women and their children all over the world, including India, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Tunis and other parts Africa. She has published two collections of photographs: Face of the Artist and Africa: Unadorned. She is also the subject of "On Equal Ground - Photographs from an Artists' Community at the Tip of Cape Cod" published in 2001 by Provincetown Art Association and Museum (www.paam.org), with introduction by Sue Harrison, preface by Eleanor Munro, essay by Ann Wilson Lloyd, and artists' biographies by Pamela Mandell. <p>Large black & white portraits of Portuguse women by Norma Holt, part of Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum collection, are mounted on the Fisherman's Wharf building. The installation "They Also Faced the Sea" is a collaboration with Polish artist Ewa Nogiec, who has lived on Cape Cod since 1983. </p> <p>She has received grants from CETA, the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Florsheim Foundation, among others. She resides in Provincetown and New York.'</p> <p>Ewa Nogiec says 'The installation of five larger-than-life black and white photographs of Provincetown women of Portuguese descent, mounted on a building at the end of Fisherman’s Wharf in Provincetown Harbor, is conceived as a tribute to the Portuguese community and its fishing heritage.</p> <p>Norma Holt's photographs from Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum collection of Almeda Segura, Eva Silva, Mary Jason, Bea Cabral and Frances Raymond, are meant to represent all of the women of Provincetown who over the years have been the backbone of this vital fishing village. They came from a long line of hard-working people, immigrating mostly from the Azores and mainland Portugal. Their families fished the waters off Cape Cod for over 200 years, built a major fish packing and distribution industry and made an important contribution to the history and culture of Provincetown.</p> <p>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. 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.</p> <p>"They Also Faced The Sea" installation was designed to help keep the spirit and the presence of this culture alive by Ewa Nogiec, artist and publisher of iamprovincetown.com, and Norma Holt, photographer.'</p> <p>The photos in this collection were scanned from contact sheets which accounts for the poor quality of some of the images. The pictures were taken at the same time as the above referenced installation but were not previously exhibited.</p>

Photo

Art, Biography, Cape Cod (Mass.) History, Fishing villages, Fishing villages--Massachusetts--Provincetown, Portraits, and Provincetown (Mass.)--History--20th century