Tide Runners

Tide Runners is the culmination of nine years of work by renowned photographer and author Tim Barnwell. Best known for his touching and evocative images of Appalachia, here he turns his keen eye and documentary talents to focus on the shrimping and fishing industries of the coastal southeast. This exploration took him from the Outer Banks and seaside towns of North Carolina, to dozens of locations in South Carolina and Georgia, ending at Fernandina Beach, Florida, historic home of the shrimping industry in America. Mr. Barnwell's exquisite color portrait and landscape photographs are combined with oral history interviews where subjects share family stories and describe their work routines and daily activities. This pairing of images and text reveal the hard work, dedication, and stamina of these independent folk and the beauty of their rugged way of life. From before sunrise until after dark these men and women, bound by the rhythms of the tides, struggle to support themselves and their families, confronting financial hardship, market forces beyond their control, mechanical failures, and long hours under difficult and dangerous working conditions in all seasons and types of weather. Over numerous trips to the area, the author visited dozens of small communities and went out on shrimping and fishing boats spending time getting to know the boat captains, strikers on the back of the trawlers, dock workers, food processors, and restaurant employees.Tide Runners offers an exciting, vibrant and substantive look at the shrimping and fishing industries operating along the southeastern coast and provides readers the chance to explore this unique and fading way of life, its depth and beauty revealed by photographer Tim Barnwell's masterful eye.