I have fond memories of holidays as a child in Cornwall here in England.
As I grew those holidays continued with friends and I eventually found myself living in the area for a brief time.
It was around this time (the early 1990s) that I started a project to capture portraits and images of Cornish fishermen.

It mystified me why I got so deeply drawn to this subject to the point that I wondered if I had spent a previous life chasing Pilchards!
Nearly all of the images were captured on film including this 5×4 portrait below.

Having lived in St Ives for that short period I got to know the town fairly well and knew of these buildings on the harbour called lodges.
From what I learnt the lodges were used as meeting places for local fishermen.

One day while I decided to venture inside the Lodge and found several charismatic old gentlemen chatting.
I’m unsure how things progressed from there but I do remember grabbing my 5×4 plate camera and shooting a couple of portraits.

Unfortunately, this retired fisherman’s name escapes me without digging out my old film notes but by pure chance, his hat perfectly matched the interior of the lodge.

One day I may continue this project and also wade through the many rolls of film to digitise the project into some kind of coherent collection of work.

 

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