Commerce/Economics-Hand of Man-Corey Arnold

Corey Arnold
By Rebeka Schmieder 

Corey Arnold is both a photographer and a commercial fisherman in Alaska. He studied at the Academy of Art in San Fransisco, CA. During the summer he worked as a fisherman. His first love is fishing and his second love is photography. When he was a kid his dad showed him how to fish and later on his dad introduced him to a camera. His work is a documentary expose on fisheries in Alaska and Europe. His images explore both his personal relationships with his co-workers and also the strenuous work fishermen encounter everyday. Arnold's photographs have been published in a number of magazines, including Time LENS magazine, Esquire. The New Yorker.

His ongoing series Fish Work:The Bering Sea documents his work on multitude of fishing boats, some of which he owes, and on larger vessels as well. It is important for Arnold to accurately present the story of the hard work and danger encountered by fisherman. He would shoot between work and sleep.

Untitled 

Gulf Crossing

Opilio Bed

Between String

The photographs are visually elegant, and sometimes shocking. The photo Opilio Bed is both disturbing and humorous. Arnold does a fantastic job of capturing emotions of the workers. He reveals that it is not always dangerous, sad and dreary work, there are moments of fun among the workers. His work presents all aspects of working on a fishing boat.

In another series, Arnold  focused on life outside of commercial fishing. Graveyard Point documents the residents of a small village in Alaska. The series combines landscape and portraiture.

The Graveyard Hotel

Kvichak Exploratory Committee

Bobby after the Shooting

Ben and King

Arnold documents the unique individuals of this dying community. Despite the appearance of a ghost town, scenic documentary shots and portrait of the residents bring life and character to Graveyard Point.

Arnold's work inspires my documentary work because he manages to do both photography and fishing in equal measure. It's refreshing to see that he did not give up one dream to live out the other. I would like to think that it would be possible for me to do this with my own work.