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Not A Funeral: Portraits Of Gloucester’s Working Waterfront

BOSTON — The fishing industry is reeling this month following emergency calls from federal regulators to further limit cod fishing in the Gulf of Maine. A final vote is expected in November.

One hard-hit community that’s bracing for the outcome is Gloucester on Cape Ann. But a new portrait project is revealing another side to the faces, families and stories you can find on America’s oldest working waterfront.

“When I went to school you saw the boats, but you never saw the guys inside of them,” Vito Giacalone recalled. “I mean they were just going by you and you never could see the people.”

The 29-year-old grew up in Gloucester watching his father and grandfather fish for a living. Now Giacalone and his two brothers own Fisherman’s Wharf, a seafood auction house and dealership on the harbor. Last year, the three generations posed together for a community portrait project.

“Now you can see who captains them, who’s the crewmen on the boat, and I think that’s a sense of pride for these guys,” Giacalone told me with a smile. Though, at the same time, he says these guys (and some girls) could really use a boost.

“A lot of the morale is down with the fishermen,” he said.

Link to the audio story here.

Fishtown Local Gordon Baird

Here’s an interesting idea: what if you took all the boat owners and shoreside support in the Gloucester fishing industry and lumped them all into one big room at once? 

And if you could get them to stand still for a second, you could see the joy, pain, toil, tears, sweat and lifetime of work on their faces, one by one. 

But could you ever get them to not talk at once?

A fella named John [sic] Hooper has done just that. And for 14 weeks, they will be standing to address you at Cape Ann Museum in a remarkable portrait of the fishermen and women that pretty much make up the entire industry. 

Hooper has brought together almost every city skipper and a whole lot of crew workers into his studio to shoot them in working clothes with working attitudes against a common backdrop. His goal was clearly to give the rest of us an insight into their lives and outlook, as well as their pain and their happiness. After all, who has it better or worse than a fisherman at work? 

Each face registers that equation differently and — pure Glosta — colorfully.

Of course, they run from mostly people you know or have heard of — like Paul “Sasquatch” Cohan or Russell Sherman — to those that you might not have, like Richard Taylor or Bonnie Ackerly or Nino Sanfillipo. They are grouped in ones and twos, threes or fours, depending on the team and boat size. There are a bunch of them — at least 60 photos of at least 120 folks — and they all share “that look”. That’s the look of adventure and achievement, of turmoil and disappointment, of bravery and fear, of youth and of age. 

It’s a mind-opening exhibition, especially if you don’t spend that much time walking the docks. If you do, you’ll realize Hooper has captured their spirit and their bodies in an industry as old as the nation and as young as the crippling cuts that have reshaped it in the past decade. It is as new an attraction in the museum as the Fitz Hank Lane paintings are old.

Those paintings have anchored Cape Ann Museum from the beginning and they have never looked better. The museum’s recent renovations have enabled it to branch forwards and backwards simultaneously.

Link to the editorial here.

Letter: Hancock daughter thanks city for tribute to dad

To the editor:

Leaving Cape Ann’s sea air, early autumn colors and dear friends was especially poignant after the outpouring of affection for my late father.

I would like thank Mayor Carolyn Kirk and Councilor Bob Whynott for presenting the proclamation declaring Sept. 25 to 27, 2014, a Salute to Walker Hancock Weekend.

The inspiration of Judith Hoglander along with the support of Pat Earle, the dedication of Ronda Falloon and entire staff of the Cape Ann Museum, of Sinikka Nogelo, the generosity of Rob Newton at Cape Ann Community Cinema, the participation of Cape Ann TV, the advance articles of the Times’ Gail McCarthy, the GHS Color Guard,video help of Les Bartlett, all conspired to make the weekend a grand success.

My heartfelt thanks to Jonathan Fairbanks, Rebecca Reynolds, Walker Flint, Bob Shure, Gloria Parsons, Lee Kingman Natti and all those spoke their recollections.

Many of us were lucky to hear Robert Edsel, author of “The Monuments Men,” “Rescuing Da Vinci” and “Saving Italy,” deliver a rich and compelling talk. I appreciate even more deeply now my father’s role in the rescue of art in Belgium and Germany and am so thrilled the story of the Monuments Men is becoming better known.

I’d also like to acknowledge Lisa and Ina Hahn and The Dusan Tynek dancers for the beautiful Quarry Dance at Walker’s studio this past summer.

The warm welcome of so many familiar faces … and new ones as well … made it evident that my father’s contributions as a sculptor and as a humane man will be treasured by his Cape Ann family and beyond.

Those who have recollections to record can do so by getting in touch with Sinikka. They will be kept for the future at the Cape Ann Museum.

Deanie Hancock French,

Nashville, Tenn.

 

Link to the GDT here.

Open Studio with Jared Bowen

Jared Bowen visits the Cape Ann Museum to review their $3.5 million renovations and sits down with author Robert Hofler to discuss his new book Sexplosion, about the entertainment industry from 1968 to 1973.

Link to the video here.

OUR WATERFRONT WORKERS Portrait show spotlights Cape Anners who make living in jobs tied to the sea

Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2014 6:00 am | Updated: 12:46 pm, Thu Oct 9, 2014.

By Gail McCarthy Staff Writer

Dominic Nicastro, 64, a father of three and grandfather of five, was a lifelong fisherman when fishing vessels numbered into the hundreds and landed millions of pounds of fish here daily. 

Jay VanDerpool, 47, a father of two, continues to make his living from the sea as a Rockport lobsterman.

Three Giacalone brothers run a seafood business at Fisherman’s Wharf on the Inner Harbor.

These men are among the 154 faces portrayed in 71 photographs featured in the new exhibition”Portraits of a Working Waterfront” at the Cape Ann Museum. The show was designed to illustrate the maritime web of relationships that exist in Gloucester, the nation’s oldest seaport. Generations of Cape Ann families have made their living with jobs connected to the ocean and the aquatic chain of jobs continues to evolve into the 21st century as the fishing industry responds to ever-changing government regulations and the resulting economic fallout. 

The portraits represent the fishermen who work offshore and those who work at the businesses onshore, as well as their wives, children and a host of others in between whose livelihood depends on the fishermen’s success at sea. Although fishing tends to be a male-dominated industry, several women are front and center, including Viking Gustafson of the Gloucester Marine Railways, and Ann Molloy of the family-run Neptune’s Harvest, a fish fertilizer producer.  

The show opens Saturday at the museum, which went beyond its usual parameters to reach out to a segment of the community who may not see themselves aligned with the city’s cultural anchor. 

These portraits by Dedham-based photographer Jim Hooper grew from a suggestion made by his friend Nonie Brady, who had an art studio in Gloucester and a deep love for the town. The resulting special exhibition represents an 18-month effort to capture the spirit of those who work the Cape Ann waterfront. 

Hooper has always been on the lookout for adventure. As a 21-year-old college drop-out, he secured a berth on an oil tanker and went around the globe. Immediately upon disembarking from the tanker, he found work on the 50-foot commercial fishing vessel Kingdom and spent weeks at a time on the Pacific line-fishing for albacore tuna.

Fast forward to a college degree, an early retirement as a successful commercial real estate broker in Boston, and a year-long study of photography at Boston University, and a new career was born.

Link to the article here.

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