Pete Robinson is a North Shields-based award-winning wedding photographer but for the past 10 years has been on a mission to record the working and home lives of local fishermen engaged in one of the UK’s most dangerous industries.
This has involved taking time to get to know the fishermen and going out with them on fishing trips for ten hours or more, with painfully early starts, rough seas and sea sickness to contend with in the search for pictures that encapsulate the harsh realities and camaraderie of life at sea.
The resulting exhibition, HARVEST FROM THE DEEP, which opens at the Old Low Light Heritage Centre on 22 July 2025 will include a selection of photographs from these expeditions that capture the heart and soul of the North Shields fishing industry.
Pete has kindly agreed to give a talk about this decade of engagement with local fishermen and the curation of the exhibition.
He will explain how in the early days some of the fishermen were a little reluctant to be photographed, with one asking if he had been sent to take photographs by the Dole Office. However, like all the best documentary photographers, he took the time to get to know the people he was photographing. The hundreds of pictures he has taken since then show the extent to which he has been accepted by the people he photographs and the respect he has for this difficult and dangerous occupation.
