Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reviewing my ongoing fishing boat based project and I’ve concluded that it isn’t going the way I want. I’m not unhappy with the images I’ve made, so far, I just feel that the photos aren’t connecting with people or conveying the story I have in my head. There are a few reasons for this, and if I’m honest, most of the issues I have are down to me. From the start, I got […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: photojournalism, trawlermen
At the end of last year, one of my goals was to be less erratic and casual with the things I chose to photograph, to avoid flitting from one subject to another with no real consistency. I think, to a point, that I managed it – quality over quantity. The career highlights of 2018 were my white squatter camp project, ‘Plakkerskamp’, and a two-week autumn trip out into the North Atlantic on a fishing trawler – both projects took me […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism, woman • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, black and white, colour, film photography, kodak portra 400, Olympus mju II, pentax 67, portrait, review 2018, trawler life, trawlermen, women
Once my sea sickness had disappeared, I found sleeping on a fishing boat to be very comfortable. A little bit too comfortable, in fact… ‘Tuesday 13th November 58°57.195N/6°59.510W Course – 228° Moderate-rough Rain 09:00 – The battery on my phone died – It’s taken me nearly half an hour to figure out whether it’s Monday, or still Tuesday… I’m not sure if it’s an advantage or a disadvantage, I suppose it depends on how you look at it? But sleeping […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, film, fishing boat, trawler, trawlermen
This journal entry was made halfway through my outing on the Reul na Mara; We’d come back to Scrabster harbour to shelter from the storm which had chased us all the way from Orkney, a maritime rollercoaster ride that lasted 10-hours. Ross’ approach and entry into a turbulent and blindingly dark Scrabster harbour was an impressive display of boat handling and a testament to his 36-years experience at sea – he made it look as easy as negotiating a shopping […]
Categories: photojournalism • Tags: 1600, 35mm, analogue, black and white, crewmen, fishermen, fishing boat, Ilford hp5 400, pushed film, scotland, trawlermen
Some more meanderings from my recent trip with the crew on the fishing trawler, Reul na Mara, in the North Atlantic. ‘8th November 2018. 59°56.220N/6°44.813W Course 268° Sea state – moderate to rough 00.20 – Trawler life is linear; there’s no set time of day when anything in particular happens, it’s merely, ‘Fish, Eat, Sleep, Repeat.’. Clock time is irrelevant, breakfast, lunch and supper are events rather than times of the day. Any sleep pattern I did have, we left […]
Categories: Photography, photojournalism, Uncategorized • Tags: 35mm, analogue, scotland, trawler, trawlermen
For two weeks in November, I joined the fishing vessel, Ruel na Mara and her crew, working about 100km northwest off the Outer Hebrides. I don’t wish to romanticise something that these men do for work, all year round, but for me, it was an incredible experience. “A proper adventure”, as a friend dubbed it – two weeks on a 24 metre, wooden-hulled trawler, with two Scotsmen and four Filipinos somewhere in North Atlantic, wearing the same underwear for days […]
Categories: Photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, 6x7, analogue, black and white, colour, film photography, fishermen, fuji pro 400H, I shoot film, Olympus mju II, personal project, portrait, scotland, trawlermen
I’ve just returned from a two week trip with the Inverness registered fishing boat, Reul na Mara. Most of the fortnight was spent in the North Atlantic, off the NW of the Outer Hebrides. I’ll be publishing photos as they are developed and scanned, and sharing diary entries of this, the first of a few trips in the project, over the next few months. I haven’t done a technical type article for a while, so I thought it would be […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analog, analogue, nikon f100, scotland, trawlermen
All images – Pentax 67II/105mm/Kodak Portra 800 film
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 6x7cm, pentax 67, trawlermen
These are the last images from ‘Holmtown’ that I’ll be sharing, for now; I’ve got to the point where I need to collate everything I have and get it all into some order. Also, there are dozens of faces I want to photograph in and around the harbour and breakwater area of Peel, some of them who are involved in the fishing industry on the Isle of Man but don’t necessarily go out to sea. Since I started this project, […]
Categories: film photography, Photography, photojournalism • Tags: colour, film camera, film photography, isle of man, kodak, peel, personal project, trawlermen
A few people have asked why I’ve titled my latest project, ‘Holmtown’? Well, for this longterm photo-essay, I’m documenting the lives of fishermen from my hometown of Peel, on the Isle of Man – Peel, which until the 17th century was called Holmtown. I was going to call it ‘Holmtown Boys’, however, a very good friend of mine pointed out that it sounds like a 90’s boy band – and it does. This leads me to another common question regarding […]
Categories: film photography, photojournalism • Tags: 35mm, analogue, fishermen, I shoot film, isle of man, kodak ektar 100, peel, trawlermen
