Archive for the ‘travel journals’ Category

On rare occasions, a surfable wave appears at the spit in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.  These pics were taken on Jan 18, 2010 actually during twilight hours.  But you’ve got to wear a seagull destruction helmet to survive the “beakings“.  The wave breaks at the base of the Icicle Seafoods fish guts and bits discharge pipe so watch out for 10,000 hungry birds, 300 pound halibut and boat sized sleeper sharks nipping at your toes.

photos: Corey Arnold

This place is underrated for sure.

I’m off to Dutch Harbor, Alaska for a few weeks. Gonna be in a similar place as in the picture.
This time it’s a personal mission.  If you need to reach me urgently, please email Maren Levinson or one of the galleries listed on the contacts page. Skitt Fiske!

I spent June and July this summer commercial fishing for salmon in Bristol Bay and following up with pictures on last years Outside magazine story about the proposed Pebble mine.  It’s been very busy over here with magazine assignments, my salmon business and upcoming group exhibitions so I’ve only just begun to sort through the summers huge arsenal of new pictures!  As soon as I’m home for a solid week or two, I’ll be adding a ton of new images to the site. Hopefully, I’m not crying wolf again this time.

I just wrapped up a 1.5 month venture into Bristol Bay, Alaska where I’ve started my own commercial salmon catching business. Lot’s of pictures and a new portfolio category to come soon!

But first, lots of catching up to do back home.  102 degrees here in the office in Portland, and record temps while I was in Alaska as well.  Something’s fishy!

Last summer I returned to Bristol Bay, Alaska on assignment for Outside Magazine.  This is the place that I landed my first commercial fishing job in 1995. It’s a pristine wilderness area, home to caribou and giant brown bears and one of the last great wild salmon producing river systems in North America that hasn’t been exploited by human tinkering… until now.  One of the world’s largest deposits of Copper and Gold has been discovered in the headwaters of the Nushagak and Kvichak rivers.  Foreign mining companies have converged on the site and hope to dig one of the largest open pit mines in the world, worth hundreds of billions of dollars.  Tailings from the mine could eventually seep their way into the watershed and destroy the salmon habitat forever.  Pick up Outside Magazine this month and check out the hard hitting article written by my pal Tim Sohn.

This summer, I’ll be operating my own fishing vessel in Bristol Bay and will continue my photo project on the region.  More picks and a shiny new portfolio section to come.  Below are some spreads from the Outside article.  They also put up a small web gallery of my picks online.  Thanks to all the fisherman that accommodated me for my one month journey around the bay last year!

I’m back from a short trip to Russia and Norway.

I’ve been working a lot for a wonderful travel magazine based in Montreal, Quebec called En Route.  In November, I flew to Maui with the very talented art director Reanna Evoy.  The story was about a road trip on the dirty backroads to Hana in a red mustang convertible.  I got a bit obsessed with shooting skimboarders and foam rolling in on the beach, but managed to snap a few other photos as well.

Below are some out takes that didn’t get published:

The mustang was embarrassing to drive around in, but practical nonetheless. (note Reanna’s mom in the back seat)

It just occurred to me that these verticals are so huge, you probably won’t fit them on your laptop screen.   I like ‘em big so you don’t need to wear your glasses.  That way, I can reach my target audience of 60-90 year olds.

Greyhound running fast.

We watched an 80 year old German man in a speedo wade out into the flat calm sea, when a 6 foot high set of shorebreak suddenly appeared out of nowhere.  I had one of those “Do I shoot or help?” moments.  I chose the latter but the pour guy took quite a beating.  This girl made it out alive.

Here are a few of the tears that made it in print…

2008 was a fun year… I was sent to incredible places for mag and ad assignments all year long.  In the summer, I shot the “Pioneers of Columbia’s Greater Outdoors” Campaign for Columbia Sportswear.  As I shot the still campaign, It was a honor to watch Stacy Peralta (Dogtown and Z-Boys, Riding Giants, Powell Peralta Skateboards) shoot the documentary spots for television during the same trips.  Stacy is nice guy and a brilliant director.  I used to ride his skateboards religiously when I was 11 years old.

Really good times out there in Galveston, Texas photographing the pioneers of tanker surfing (James Fullbright, Peter Davis, and John Benson) where we were nearly struck down by a massive lightning storm.

On Mount Hood in August, I shot the pioneers of Tundra Golfing, Jim Berg and Paul White Gorski.  It was 80 degrees and we picture took atop a glacial canyon that began to rumble and crack…  a bit sketchy but snow in August is hard to come by in this hemisphere.

Then we flew to Juneau, Alaska and rose by helicopter to a dog sledding camp on the Mendenhall glacier.  We camped in huts on the ice and shot Rachel Scdoris, a hardcore musher that competes in the Iditarod and happens to be legally blind.

Oh, and last but not least we shot Dan Heaton in the Snoqualmie area, who is a great innovator in the sport of off Road Unicycling.  The trips were so amazing that each one deserves a proper blog entry with photographs…  but this is a start.  Thanks to Butler, Stern, Shine and Partners who were a first rate agency to work with.

It’s been so long since I’ve regularly kept up with this blog… that it’s hard to begin again. A lot has happened since the new year and I’ve probably got about 10 posts worth of recapping to do before I get to current events… So, let’s just make this easy and I’ll just post out of order for the next year or so. Maybe I’ll suddenly remember in October something that happened in Feb, and I’ll post a picture with words… and you’ll wonder why there is snow in the background… etc. but you’ll never email me about it because it’s probably of no urgency to anyone to bring that to anyones attention… yeah.

Well since I’m a photographer, it just occurred to me that I should insert photos in my posts or no one would ever care to read the blog because there’s nothing to gain from reading yet another diary from someone you don’t know.

Ok, Let’s start with Switzerland. I went to Switzerland in March for a week. It was fully funded by a wonderful travel magazine which of whom I will mention when the story is actually published.

People in Switzerland as it turns out, are usually German tourists. (see above)

I met really interesting people and ate a lot of hot cheese, snowboarded everyday, the was force fed very expensive wine by the hosts. People in Arosa, Switzerland are not afraid to rock real big cat fur coats.

I got to hang out with the above man, we dined and laughed, skied together and pretended to understand each other.

He was quite agile.

I don’t normally sneak photos of people in public… and this is no exception. I gave him the old “can I take your picture wink” and he gave me a head nod that I think meant “yes, I’d actually prefer it”.

Switzerland is about teamwork

I tried my hand a bit of action sports photography.  This ain’t half bad I suppose.

This is where the blog starts to get all stock photo-y.  Someone in this building was recieving a massage at the exact moment the photograph was taken.

Has anyone that’s flown to Zurich seen this girl in the terminal train of the airport? I fell in love instantly and thought about her my whole trip. She winked at me on a hundred TV screens, then blew me a kiss. If anyone out there knows her personally, please be in touch.

That’s it for my Switzerland post… next up, Hawaii in April!

Just got back from San Francisco where I was on a top secret assignment for New York Magazine. Well maybe not ‘top’ secret but it was a good fun one. Last week I was in the Yukon Territory taking pictures of risky outdoor behavior for En Route, a nice Canadian Travel Mag. Whitehorse, check it out on the map, then go there… it’s a wonderful place.

Giant Robot Magazine issue 43 is out now. Check out the beautiful cover art by my Arctic accomplice Rachell Sumpter… yeah, that’s me with the fish! An interview with Rachell about our trip accompanied with my photos can be spotted inside.

I just did a little how to blog thing on how to find a fishing job in Alaska for my favorite website Fecalface dot com. Tonight I leave for the Inuit village of Shishmaref in Alaska. I’ll be out of touch for a week while searching for Polar Bears via dogsled and meeting some local whaling folk. See you next week!

I’ve been nominated for the Aperture West Book Prize. Hot Dog! Also, this month you will find a great critical story about “Deadliest Catch” in the April issue of Mens Journal. My photo of Chris getting pummeled by a wave can be found on the contents page. In gallery show news, I’ll have a few photos in the Beholder-art show on May 19th at the Tinlark Gallery in Los Angeles.

On a skate trip with some Norwegian buddies… hitting parks from Lincoln City to San Francisco. Oregon parks are rediculous… if it doesn’t have oververt, it’s probably not in Oregon.

From the long journey: Dutch Harbor to Seattle a few weeks ago.

I just arrived back from another journey to Finnmark in Northern Norway where I lived with a very friendly old Sami couple that treated me to fresh blood sausages after long days of reindeer roundup and slaughter. More photos to come!

I was having a nice time in South Africa this week until I witnessed this atrocity happen in front of a carload of innocent grandmothers.

Hanging in Stavanger, Norway at the moment and almost walked off this cliff yesterday. Rumour has it that two weeks ago someone threw part of a hot dog over the cliff and their dog jumped after it. Darn! Thanks to Design Sponge and Josh Spear for the nice reviews of my new website. If you are using Safari and reading this, you will find that the menu dosen’t work, we’re fixing that ASAP but just use the arrows on the top right to get outta here.

The New site is online! There are still a few bugs though…. for example if you are using safari, you might have some troubles with the menu. We’re working on it but its nice to just get it out there finally! Feel free to email me if something isn’t working ok. Also I’ll have photos in two new San Francisco exhibitions: GRSF Tree Show in July and Fecal Face Annual Exhibition at 111 Minna in August. Thanks!

I’ve just arrived in Vardø, Norway. After eating an omelette in the next ten minutes, SF Accomplice Rachell Sumpter and I will set out in search of the elusive Sami reindeer herder and the often shifty Norwegian whaler and will likely have a seal hunting conversation with at least 3 other people. In other news… This months issue of SOMA magazine has a series of street portraits from coreyfishes.

The Rollo now has a website at rollocrab.com. Hurray! But don’t get too excited because it isn’t done yet… but there are a few new photos.