Press Release: Fish-Work at Sara Tecchia Roma New York

SARA
TECCHIA
ROMA
NEW YORK

gulf_crossing.jpg

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

EXHIBITION:

FISH-WORK: Photographs by Corey Arnold

DATES: February 19 – April 4, 2009

RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST: Thursday, February 26, 6-8 pm

Sara Tecchia Roma New York is extremely proud to announce the New York debut exhibition of photographer Corey Arnold. As a college student eager to travel and pay off his college loans, Arnold (b. 1976) soon realized that commercial fishing in Alaska could satisfy his appetite for adventure and financial stability. Over the past 13 years, he has made his living as a salmon fisherman and more recently a crab fisherman in the Bering Sea, a 3-4 month a year job that continues to this day.

Arnold’s images feed off and satisfy our natural voyeurism as the vivid images project the viewer into landscapes the average traveler will never directly experience. In this sense the work follows the legacy of the artists/explorers of the Hudson River School as well as Nineteenth Century photographers William Henry Jackson and Carleton E. Watkins. What sets Arnold’s work apart is the lack of personal distance that objective documentation requires. Arnold by the medium of straightforward film photography depicts his life story and those who are part of it: the daily grind (Opilio Morning), the necessary humor (Shitty Day) and the fearsome beauty (Gulf Crossing) associated with one of the world’s most hazardous professions. Most images are vignettes in which the viewer’s gaze renders she/he participant of the unfolding action: the swaying of the boat, the icy waters filling the deck, the frenzy to secure the prized king crab without suffering injury or harm.

Arnold is an Alaskan crab fisherman animated by a life long artistic project: to depict in a very humble fashion the power of the sea and the moods of those that have made living at sea their professional choice. The tiny men in their orange fishing gear cannot offer resistance to the force and magnitude of the open sea. Thus, one of the central ideas of Romanticism that wants Nature indomitable and unpredictable, as visually expressed by Caspar David Friederich and J.W. Turner, becomes again poignant in the 21st Century. In a post industrial world, Corey Arnold’s photographs function as a strong visual reminder not only of the beauty but also of the undeniable power that Nature holds against mankind.

In 2005, Arnold received an American Scandinavian Foundation grant for his ongoing Norwegian fisherman project. His work has been exhibited across the United States as well as in Norway, Canada, Japan and France. Recent publications include features in The Paris Review, Juxtapoz, Artweek, Italian Rolling Stone, Outside Magazine and an online presentation with National Public Radio. Fish Work will also be featured at Sara Tecchia Roma New York’s booth in the upcoming January 2009 edition of Arte Fiera-Arte First Bologna, Italy.

SARA TECCHIA ROMA NEW YORK | 529 W 20TH ST NEW YORK NY 10011 | 212 741 2900 | SARATECCHIA.COM

4 comments

  1. Chiara says:

    I met and really enjoyed your work in Bologna Arte Fiera in january, and as a sailor I was hypnotized for some minutes staring at the waves pictures. I’m spreading your project, you deserve it.

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