Worthington Photography Blog

Introduction to the Catch Series

hook, 30"x60" c-print

lure, 30"x60" c-print
line, 30"x60" c-print

Its official: I will be exhibiting the Catch series at Artspace, a gallery in the Plant Zero building over the Manchester Bridge, from September 22 - October 22 of this year!

I am looking forward to finally seeing this series to completion, its been three years since I started and dang it if it isn't time to finish. Last year I was awarded a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship for my work on the series and while I had no problem spending the grant money on lights and other items, I did have a problem spending the time. Not that I am complaining: I am happy to have a growing business.

Now that its crunch time I'm hoping that by blogging about the series, I will get myself pumped for the show and hold myself accountable for its progress. But in order to explain where I am going with it, it makes sense to tell you more about where it started.

It actually began with outlet shopping, oddly enough. Sam had just taken up fly fishing with a passion and was looking for a new rod for his birthday so we drove out to the Orvis outlet to see what we could find. I quickly lost interest in the rod when I saw a clear, plastic locker with something brightly colored in it... When I opened the drawer it was full of bright purple lures (which I have learned to call flies) made up of feathers, sparkly string, glitter and googly eyes. I was enamoured. I hastily reached in to pick one up, forgetting about the hook. It drew blood. I put it in a little plastic bag - I wanted to buy it but wasn't sure what I wanted to use of for or why, there was something really interesting about what had just happened.

Sam didn't find what he was looking for so we hopped back in the car and a song by Frank Sinatra and Anotonio Carlos Jobim was playing in the CD changer called "Baubles, Bangles and Beads" and I heard,

"...sparkle, spangle... her heart will sing sing-a-ling-a... wearing baubles, bangles and beads... she'll glitter and gleam so.. make somebody dream so... that someday, someday I may... buy her a ring ring-a-ling-a... I've heard thats where it leads... wearing baubles, bangles and beads..."

And then I thought about all the fishing vocabulary that is already part of dating - how we compliment someone on a "nice catch", how we break up and there are "other fish in the sea", how we fall "hook, line and sinker"....

GAD-ZOOKS.

It seems like a rather peurile comparison, fishing and dating, and my first few attempts were simple too. I picked out some flies and dressed up as their fly girl counterpart and made plays on words common to both dating and fishing. I put both the fly and fly girl on white backgrounds without context and took very straightforward shots in terms of lighting and technique to make it feel more like documentation or examination. Finally, I put vignettes on each subject to suggest a private viewing, perhaps you are looking through a microscope or binoculars or maybe even a peep hole. Its sterile but there is the possibility of something elicit. At first I was disappointed with my own awkward and rigid modeling abilities but when I put them up next to the picture of the fly, it was a perfectly plastic and inauthentic match. I included some of these early attempts at the beginning of this post.

As I learned more about fly fishing through Sam and thought more about my role as a wedding photographer (someone who documents the big catch every weekend), the comparisons became... more complex... and I think more interesting. So stay tuned...

posted by Mel @ 10:17 AM