Everyone loves looking at pictures of naked celebrities cuddling with huge fish — right? That's what Fishlove, a new campaign for sustainable fishing, is hoping.
Borrowing a page from the PETA playbook, Fishlove is a photo series that asks celebrities to help stop over-fishing by posing naked with fish. The photographs are part of a project for the OCEAN2012 campaign, which represents 160 different organizations throughout the European Union that are trying to push policy for fair and healthy fishing practices.
The series was launched in 2009 to promote a film on the fishing crisis called "End of the Line," by Charles Clover. Clover teamed up with Brighton restaurateur, Nicholas Rohl to create the Fishlove series.
Rohl says the project was initially inspired by an image produced by advertising agency Leo Burnett of a naked woman cradling a fish like she was breastfeeding, "The fishing crisis is quite complex and difficult for people to understand, but this was so simple: it said everything that anyone needed to know about the fishing crisis: if we don’t start protecting fish, they will die out,” describes Rohl in a press release.
The two then joined forces with fashion photographer, Rankin, to photograph their first celebrity supporter, Italian-Australian actress, Greta Scacchi holding a huge cod.
Other celebrities that have participated in the Fishlove project, include Jerry Hall, Lizzy Jagger, the Olympic gold swimmer Mark Foster, Mariella Frostrup, and chef Tom Aikens. The website has a complete gallery of the images.
"The FISHLOVE photographic series has been credited for changing the course of the debate in the lead up to the crucial vote on the European fishing policy in November this year, putting pressure on European leaders to vote against the disastrous over-fishing of our seas," declares the organization's press release.
The images will be exhibited at the Pertwee, Anderson & Gold gallery in Soho, London on October 25th.
The website and press materials are all sure to mention that the fish used in the photos have been donated by Waitrose, an online grocery story, and were caught using sustainable practices.
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