Welcome to the third part of my adventure in Barbados… First published by Home Counties Newspapers in February 1974… This time we visit the fields of graceful sugar cane…
Regretfully we had only the duration of one day in Barbados, and in order to cover as much as possible picture taking had to be rushed, positions, exposure values and reloading were undertaken with the utmost speed, a situation I dislike.
Wherever you are on the island there is the awareness of its main industry – sugar. Great fields of tall canes raise their heads where the vegetation ceases, and dotted here and there one can see the field workers busy harvesting with their long, sharp maschettes. We stopped at one of these fields to try to obtain pictures of cutting in progress. The cane grows to a height of around 5 feet and is usually cut in the January and February months. It is then taken to a processing plant and the extract is made from the inner stalk. I snapped merrily away at these hard-working folk, posing them this way and that.
My directions and the fact that they were being photographed at their occupation seemed to go down well, and the promise of a few prints being sent to them from England added further to their generous co-operation.
Follow my further adventures on the sun-drenched island of Barbados…
