AN award-winning photographer who has worked as far afield as Antarctica and Outer Mongolia has launched a new exhibition in Greenock.

Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert is turning back the clock to earlier in his career by displaying images taken during two fishing trips in the North Sea.

The 48-year-old spent 20 years working as a freelance photographer for such prestigious titles as Time, National Geographic, The Guardian and The Sunday Times.

He is also one of the principal photographers for Greenpeace International and was based in Japan before returning home to Scotland five years ago.

Jeremy said: “My exhibition North Sea Fishing was based on two boat trips in the 1990s between Scotland and Norway.

“I like to experience different things and different lives.

“It’s like a slice of time.”

The photographer says he was inspired by an overnight assignment photographing fishing trawlers for a newspaper.

Jeremy said: “There was a fisherman’s protest, lots of boats altogether, protesting against the latest EU rules and regulations.

“It was a night of adventure — watch dawn rise, shoot the other boats, back to harbour and home by lunchtime.”
Jeremy then asked the skipper if he could join the crew on their next trip.

He said: “I was told, ‘if you think you can handle it, you can come but there’s no going back...if you’re seasick you’ll be seasick for 10 days’.”

The stunning black and white photos which were the result of that trip capture the bleak reality of life at sea, the gruelling work and harsh conditions.

Jeremy also got stuck in as part of the crew, doing night watches and other tasks. Jeremy said: “It was hard work and I don’t envy them their job but it was great being out at sea.

“After a few days I put the camera away and I gutted some fish and did a night watch with one of the guys, watching we didn’t crash into oil rigs or other ships and sorting out the fish.”

The exhibition comes after a small book was published with the fishing photographs and sold out, encouraging Jeremy to go on tour with his work.

The showcase runs at the Beacon in Greenock until February 28.

This is the second exhibition he has run in Inverclyde, after a shipbuilding one last January.

Jeremy said: “I received a good response last time to my show. People seemed to like it and some came along not knowing that they were actually in the pictures.

“It was great that the shipbuilding show was held only a couple of miles from Ferguson’s.”