This body of work began a few years ago whilst going through my father’s old tackle boxes. I was not looking for anything particular except for remnants of the past. I spent countless mornings as a young boy fishing the waters of the Chesapeake and the Delaware Bays. I had my share of hooks in fingers and strange catches. I watched my father swallow live minnows and recall being dragged out of the frozen, February waters of the Wicomico. As I sifted through the antiques, I found the lures and other tackle to be fascinating, vibrant, and curious in their variety of forms. At the time, I was without a wet studio and found myself recording their likeness in exquisite detail with the cool, even, cathode light on my flat bed scanner. There is humor in the character of these items: to think a fish might find them an attractive meal. Their silliness seems more appropriate for the human eye than a fish eye. I want the images to reflect contemporary techniques for the examination and chronicling of small things, as if they were arthropods, flora, or miniscule human artifacts, which are often overlooked, but now made grand.

photocrati gallery