“Ever since documentary photographer Joanne Coates could remember, she has cherished one specific memory of her grandfather — a 1970s photograph of him wearing frayed blue overalls and fishing boots while out fishing in the North Sea. In a way, Coates discovered similar traits between her grandfather and the fishermen she met while growing up on the coast in northern England: determination and patience. Nearly a decade later, after witnessing how the devastating changes in the fishing industry affected people near to her heart, she felt inspired to revisit these fond characters from her past. “Their faces, their stories enthralled me,” she says.”
