This short series of photographs were made in Cefn Mabley near Cardiff, I had set out to explore the idea of the trophy image, a record, maybe an artless snapshot or more formal and consciously lit, of a personal moment of triumph. The fishermen portrayed are justly proud of their catch; the photograph becomes a distillation of the whole experience, the object that is accepted by all as evidence of the moment. The fact is the fish no longer exists, only the image of the fish, the moment has passed and only can exist in the physical make-up of the photograph. Roland Barthes suggests “What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially. As soon as the click of the shutter has occurred, what is photographed no longer exists; subject is transformed into object and even into a museum object”.

Photographed by Graham Cook