First Week in Martinique

Submitted by Gabriel Fennemore on the 2025 Winter program in Schoelcher, Martinique

I selected some of the most beautiful pictures I’ve captured so far in Martinique, l’île des fleurs (“the island of flowers,” as it is nicknamed.) But paradise is not just a good climate.

Expecting a bus that had forgotten its schedule, I spoke a long time with the old woman that waited beside me. When she asked what I thought of her country and I called it beautiful, her reaction surprised me: “C’est mon pays, faut parler franchement. Pour moi, ce n’est pas l’île des fleurs. Ça c’est pour les touristes. Mais c’est l’île des poubelles.” (“It’s my country and I must speak honestly. For me, it’s no isle of flowers. That’s what tourists call it. It’s an island of garbage.”)

She referred to all the litter in the roads, the noisy cars, the poverty of the neighborhoods on the other side of the hill. Everything being imported, the cost of life becomes unmanageable. The French government ignores its responsibility toward its territories, maintaining them as vacation spots. “Mais la nourriture n’est pas mal, hein ? Vous aimez le boudin ?” (“But the food’s not too bad, hey? You like boudin?”)

I still find the island beautiful. But the stories of photographs and the stories of people living here are very different. I am reminded I am only a visitor. (Submitted on January 13, 2025)

The bay at Lamentin