When my friend Nonie Brady suggested that the people of Gloucester’s waterfront should be photographed, her idea resonated with me. During my youth, I spent a few months as 1st mate and ‘puller’ on a commercial tuna fishing boat in the Pacific. After each 2-3 week trip, we would return to Astoria, Oregon to sell our catch to the old Bumble Bee cannery. This formative experience gave me a special appreciation for the men and women who earn their livelihood from the sea, so the idea of photographing the people of Gloucester’s fabled commercial waterfront resonated with me.
With initial sponsorship from the Northeast Seafood Coalition, my friend Brian Tetrault and I moved my photography studio into a borrowed space in a fish processing building on Gloucester’s Fish Pier. We made 71 portraits of 150+ members of Gloucester’s fishing fleet and the shore side businesses that support the fleet.
The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester joined the Northeast Seafood Coalition to co-sponsor this project and they mounted an exhibition of these portraits that was on display in 2014 and 2015.
These portraits are now part of the Museum’s permanent collection.
