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Sotterley Presents: People and Perspectives with Jay Fleming
October 18, 2023 @ 7:00 pm
October 18, 2023 – Join Maryland based photographer Jay Fleming as he presents photographs and stories from his books Working the water and Island Life and his photography on the Chesapeake Bay. Fleming will also share images from his water based photography workshops that he runs on the Chesapeake Bay out of his studio on Kent Island.
Jay Fleming’s second book, Island Life, is a visual narrative of the environment, communities and commercial fisheries of Smith Island, Maryland and Tangier Island, Virginia—the last inhabited offshore islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Although less than 15 miles of water separate Smith and Tangier from the mainland, centuries of isolation have preserved the unique way of life of these island communities, making them feel worlds apart from the life most of us know.
Since his first trip to the islands in 2009, Fleming has seen remarkable changes to the islands’ landscape and communities. Cemeteries are washing into the water, acres of marshland are disappearing and the populations are in decline. Fleming felt a sense of urgency to document the islands’ iconic working waterfronts, as the very forces that sustain them also threaten to take them away. Equal parts informative and aesthetically pleasing, Island Life reveals the beauty and the perils of a life dependent upon the rhythms of the tide and the harvest of the Chesapeake Bay.
Jay Fleming is a photographer and writer who documents the complex interactions between humans and their natural environment. Born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland, Jay grew up with an affinity for the water. He discovered his passion for photography at the age of 13 with a hand-me-down 35mm film camera. In 2015, Jay turned his attention to photography full time in 2015 after working in the field of fisheries and seafood marketing. Since then, Jay has published two photography books – Working the Water and Island Life, he operates two workboats while leading water based photography workshops on the Chesapeake Bay and manages his studio on Kent Island, Maryland.
This event will be HYBRID, meaning you can join us virtually or in person. You can register for either here:
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Buy Jay Fleming’s Books: