Provincetown, the free city where America loses its name
A priori, leaf through the book provincetown of Joel Meyerowitz before visiting the seaside town for the first time, it sounds like a fabulous idea. A posteriori, it still is, but with nuances. On the one hand, encourages the desire to fable about the true essence of the place where the United States loses its name , but then there is the risk of disappointment at the excessive romanticization of the dream trip.
The 160 page photo book summarize those eternal summers that will never come back, and that the brilliant photographer recounts after wandering through the sand dunes, the grassy beaches and the bustling piers in search of faces embellished by salt and the sea breeze.
On this strange piece of land at the tip of Cape Cod , few people know that Meyerowitz published a discreet ad in the tabloid Provincetown Advocate looking for models. "Extraordinary people!", the message said. "If you feel you are unique because of a birthmark, scar, personal experience, or know someone unique, I would like to photograph you."
Most of the chosen ones, however, were discovered by surprise . He instantly realized that everyone was potentially photographable. A cast of characters that every summer they returned attracted by the magnetism of the sun and the beach , but above all for being a free place full of glances wrapped in a magical aura.
Almost without meaning to, Joel Meyerowitz was something like the notary's last stop among those who wanted to know rather little about the rest of the United States. freaks they were misnamed, the refuge of the queer community, cursed artists, hippies with millions of kilometers in their backpacks, hopeless bohemians and wandering souls they congregated far enough away from the disapproving gaze of the Yankee culture that despised them.
p-town , as the locals like to call it was (is?) a place where you could love publicly , hanging out boringly doing nothing, drinking heavily in broad daylight, experimenting with all kinds of drugs and having sex without restraint before the HIV crisis settled on every corner.
A little over a year ago The Provincetown Independent interviewed the photographer taking advantage of the promotion of his tribute book. “It was full of interesting people, Portuguese fishermen, a colony of artists, many playwrights, musicians and poets he said. Although today rather little remains of the Provincetown of the late 1970s , locals still like to say they live in “ the end of the world ”. The problem is that no one could have imagined that the end of the world, or rather the end of Provincetown as we know it, could be close because of a viral pandemic that does not understand races, gender or ideologies.
As it is easy to imagine, Cape Cod remains one of New England's busiest vacation spots . The population goes from 215,000 to more than 500,000 people during the summer. Y Provincetown perfectly sums up this summer gentrification in search of human contact and seafood cuisine. Of the 2,800 lonely souls who endure the whole winter with the seagulls, it is passed to more than 65,000 people who fill the commercial streets with shops with hippy clothes, art galleries, bars and restaurants . One of the standard-bearers of this oasis was always Anthony Bourdain , who began working in kitchens, first as a cleaner for dishes and pans and later as a cook, in this coastal town.
In one of the episodes of Parts Unknown for CNN, Anthony Bourdain said reminiscing about old times. “I first landed in 1972. It was a town with a lot of orange sun. Provincetown was the capital of wonder and grace ; with a long-standing tradition of accepting artists, writers, homosexuals and anyone who was different. It was paradise. It was the joy of having the absolute certainty of being invincible and that none of your life choices would have repercussions or effects in your later life. At that time, I certainly didn't think I was going to be a cook. I don't know what I thought I was going to be in life. I was hanging out in a beautiful place Bourdain was talking on the show about his first job as a dishwasher at the flagship restaurant , a place that is currently closed, like many others that will not reopen their doors after this summer.
"If restaurants miss the peak summer season, I'm afraid many, if not most, will never reopen," he says. Adam Dunn , owner of the Red Pheasant restaurant for Eater. “Margins are brutally tight, and seasonal restaurants often have just enough cash to get them through the winter months. Once spring comes most open the sooner the better to get cash flowing again as soon as possible ". A jump-kill modus operandi that It has been unfeasible this year with the confinement and total closure . The state of Massachusetts is one of those that has best combated the spread of the virus, but the essential issue does not fall so much on the affected regions as in tourists moving from state to state with unknown medical history in luggage.
The entire north and south coast of Cape Cod up to Provincetown is a clear example that this summer will no longer be the best of their lives . It is as if the light from the headlights that flood the region were dimmer, the sun shone reluctantly, and the night was more cloudy. Gov. Charlie Baker's reopening plan puts restaurants on one side of the ring and bars on the other.
Restaurants can serve meals outdoors , in the dining room and to go; but the bars , the main attraction for many tourists who want to party, they cannot be opened until an effective vaccine for Covid-19 is developed . This creates an obvious imbalance between businesses. Everything is half open or half closed, and emotional discomfort does not help dispel doubts.
Small exceptions remain, such as the legendary The Canteen and its rear terrace overlooking the beach. Robert Anderson, co-founder of the establishment, makes it very clear on the local's Instagram account. "We want to continue providing that service to our community for as long as possible. Here at the end of the world, we are preparing for the worst but hoping for the best ", he says optimistically, knowing that his time to earn money is slipping away. Without losing his bearings, the tables begin to fill with lobster rolls, fresh fish, colorful salads and local beer.
The first wave of tourists wanting to leave their problems behind, does not mask the reality of kitchens inside . Because if something is showing the summer 2020 is that even in a place called “The end of the earth”, fear has crept in where before only good vibes were breathed . The challenge is to convince tourists that everything is under control, because walking through Provincetown these days is a painful exercise for the nostalgic, since they realize that it will not be easy to recover the micro-universe of the eternal summers . Not only the newcomer fears for his safety, but also the temporary employees hired at half gas on the terraces and, of course, the local inhabitants, who for the first time in a long time they are suspicious of the stranger who fills the photos of Joel Meyerowitz.
A woman rests next to her car on a Provincetown beach in the 1940s