Artist and author James Prosek spent the past three years traveling the fringes of the Atlantic Ocean, from Cape Cod to Cape Verde, landing fish and watching them get caught by hook, net, and鈥攊n the case of a swordfish and a bluefin tuna鈥攈arpoon. All this in the name of research: Prosek painted life-size portraits of his quarry in the moment they emerged from the ocean and appeared, in Prosek鈥檚 words, as 鈥渟wimming mirrors.鈥 The result is a stunning series of images, currently on display at the in Philadelphia. For those who want to take the fish home, the paintings have been reproduced in a gorgeous art book, (Rizzoli, $40).
Go here to see a gallery of paintings from Ocean Fishes.