If you want to keep up with Chesapeake Bay photographer Jay Fleming, you have to get up well before sunrise. Often stirring when the rest of us are hours away from waking, Fleming frequently travels hundreds of miles, arriving on location when the light is just right. Whether it’s Bay oystermen working their dredges, a blue crab clinging to an underwater rock or an early-morning landscape, Fleming’s photographs are uniquely beautiful.
Fleming’s book, Working the Water, dives deep into the lives of the working watermen who harvest the Chesapeake’s bounty. Following the fisheries with each season, the book provides an inside look at what it takes to bring Chesapeake seafood to dinner tables around the country. This video has more about the Annapolis, Maryland, photographer and his work.
We followed Fleming on Chesapeake Bay a year and a half ago to get to know him better. You can read about the trip and what makes Fleming tick in the February 2017 issue of Soundings. Additionally, we ran an excerpt from Working the Water in the October 2017 issue, with examples of Fleming’s photography.
