…Incoomiiing…. This is Rob Hart for SCALE!

Rob is a professional photojournalist from Chicago and has little to do with fishing. On the face of it! Yet, since 2011, the father of three children, who was voted Chicago’s photographer of the year in 2013, has been documenting the Redneck Fishing Tournament. A cacophony of fish mucus, scales and various degrees of drunkenness, which we present to you in this issue as a special highlight in our photo series. In addition to his many years of work for Chicago Sun-Times Media, he provided clients such as Nike and Adidas with his pictures. Countless press formats such as the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and a variety of other magazines have shown images of Hart. He currently teaches photojournalism at Columbia College in Chicago, where he graduated in 2000. On the subject “Fish slap” Rob’s got the following to say: “In the context of my Redneck Fishing documentary, more than just a fish flew around my ears!” We don’t have the slightest doubt and let you marvel at an event that can only exist in America! Welcome Rob Hart!

“Destroy carp and your liver” – that’s the catchphrase of a wild horde coming together every year in the small village of Bath, Illinois armed with boats, landing nets and plenty of alcohol. It has only two goals: to free the river from invasive Asian carp and to destroy as much high-percentage alcohol as possible. More than four species of Asian carp were used in pond farming in the 1970s to control algae bloom. Since then, the escaped animals have spread rapidly in the Mississippi catchment area all the way to the big lakes. They threaten native species as food competitors, even promote algae growth with their excrements and are actually also a threat for boaters due to their habit of panicking and jumping yard-high out of the water when being touched by a boat. Every summer, around 6,000 fish are “taken out” during the spectacle and processed into fertilizer. Revenues generated during the spectacle benefit homeless war veterans. Costume, dance and strip competitions accompany the slaughter that has made it famous nationwide under the name “Redneck Fishing Tournament”. Of course, all this has nothing to do with fishing, but the pictures of the photojournalist Rob Hart, in which fish, flags and beer whirl through the air, are so good that we have to show them. When in Rome… – even if it hurts the tender mind.