When photographing the crab-potting fishery for my coffee-table book , Working the Water ,
I wanted to show the process of catching the crabs and the people involved but also the product. A photograph of the crabs, the product , in the water would show the reader the environment where their seafood was coming from and complete the illustration of the fishery’s supply chain.
I contacted a waterman on Hoopers Island who had pots set in shallow water near the mouth of the Honga River and asked if I could snorkel around one of his pots to capture a shot of trapped crabs. Once I received permission, I picked a windless day in the spring to make my dive — knowing that the water would be clear enough for the light to penetrate to the bottom. I made a few dives around the pot and eventually put the camera inside of it — capturing a crab’s-eye perspective. CS