Virginiana

I was struck by Lima’s focus on his work, and by the basic nature of his job—fishing. It is an elemental job, a dangerous job, and something of a humble “trade” with respect to its rewards—a modest wage for piecework and the thrill of spending days out in the waterways. And yet watermen seem committed to their work.

Bob Behr was with me in Chincoteague that day. Bob works with the Chincoteague Cultural Alliance, and he’d originally helped me set up the “Random Portrait” shoot in Chincoteague, one of 12 shoots throughout Virginia for that forthcoming project. I mentioned to Bob—right then, when I saw Lima—my idea of a photo series on watermen. Bob liked it, and agreed to help me. We traded encouraging e-mails for a few years, and then finally met, in January of 2009, in Onancock. Bob brought along Neil S. Kaye, M.D. (we would later meet his wife, Susan). The Kayes had helped start the Tangier Island Museum & Interpretive Cultural Center. Neil agreed to help us find willing subjects to photograph on Tangier Island, whose residents make their livelihood on the water. That is where we all agreed to launch the project, in July of 2009.

That spring I met with Tom Moore, photography curator at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, to see if he might have some ideas or resources he could share. Tom listened while I laid out my plan, and then mentioned a wonderful contact, Charles Davis of Yorktown, another doctor who would later help us find watermen in different places. Without my knowledge, Tom went back to the museum and pitched my plan to his colleagues. Not long after, the Mariners’ Museum asked to become the lead partner in the project. The museum wanted to exhibit my watermen photographs, and also to publish a book. We all then gave the project and the book a name—Endangered Species: Watermen of the Chesapeake. After that, I had to organize the work—in real time and geographically—and compose a list of possible contacts.