A feast for the eyes – Sardine fishing provides more than fine food!
Following the overwhelming response to its initial run at the Cornish Sardine Festival last September, the A Shot In The Dark exhibition moved to a new venue at Toner. It was a powerful collection of photographs that could not have been taken by anyone other than the fishermen themselves.
Three weeks before the festival, three Newlyn skippers were handed point-and-shoot cameras loaded with high-speed black and white film. Eight rolls of 35mm captured the perspectives of the crews aboard Inter-Nos, Serene Dawn, and Lyonesse as they hunted Cornish sardines in the days leading up to the event.
Immediate, unfiltered, and raw, the exhibition shone a light on their experience of a night’s fishing in Mount’s Bay.
Flash and analogue, contrast and grain felt like the best way to recreate the atmosphere of a ‘shot’—when the net flowed, voices quietened, and minds concentrated; gulls swarmed, engines idled, and vast shoals of sardine were drawn towards the surface and the boat in an explosion of iridescent scales.
It documented the silent coordination of three or four bodies repeating motions they had done a hundred times before. Stations taken. Years of experience stored in muscle memory.
And then, calm again.
Hushed voices in the wheelhouse, a crib table overflowing with biscuits, jokes, and stories, crackling conversations held over high frequency. A mix of relevant comms and mundane chatter. Watching each other on radar. Following voices on the waves.
Light in the dark.
‘Well. If nothing materialises I think we’ll uh, ‘av another look tomorra’.’
While the physical exhibition has wrapped up, prints of these unique images from Toner are still available to buy.
Credits:
- Poster photograph: Billy Pascoe
- Photographs: Crews of Inter Nos, Lyonesse & Serene Dawn
- Exhibition concept: Rich Adams
- Curation: Rich Adams & Issy Carreira
- Film Processing & Scanning: Archie Robinson
- Printing and exhibition mk II: Matt Martin / Toner
To find out more about the project and purchase prints, visit the Argoe website here: [https://www.argoenewlyn.co.uk/a-shot-in-the-dark]
