Standing without fish!
A typological approach to fly fishing.
Fly fishing is the purest form of angling and New Zealand is the El Dorado of the fly fisherman. The search for the ultimate fishing experience brings anglers from all around the world to New Zealand. Rarely though do you get the opportunity to meet these anglers, because they are usually alone or in pairs on the innumerable streams and rivers in New Zealand. Some of these (120) anglers I have captured photographically, ‘Standing Without Fish’.
The focus of my project is to explore beneath the surface of both fishing and photography. An angler has to use his experience to conjure up a visual image of what can not be seen, and then based on infrequent observations project the behaviour of the fish on this imagined landscape. From here he can align his own actions accordingly. When his picture of this underwater world and his response to it is correct, then the angler is successful.
In the same way, the photographer must imagine his world from his own experience, he has to create images in his mind, and he must accurately form an understanding of what is being experienced beneath the surface of what can be observed. If he is unmistaken in these endeavours then his work will succeed.
