Heather Moran
South Carolina
Artist Statement Submitted 2019
For years I photographed the Lowcountry shrimp fisherman. From Beaufort to Georgetown I spent countless days on shrimp trawlers getting to know and photographing the people who work on the boats, at the docks and processing plants.The South’s fisherman exist as icons of a bygone era. Pitted against nature, they are unyielding to the trappings of modern culture. Onshore they exhibit a restlessness that only the rock of a boat on open water can satisfy. Days of sun and salt air have leathered their skin. Hands calloused from years of handling ropes and sorting shrimp are a testament to the hard labor of a fisherman’s life.
In this series of images, I set out to see beyond the iconic landscape of boats tied up along Lowcountry creeks. Using grainy film and a Hasselblad camera, I sought out found moments in the working lives of the South Carolina shrimpers.
