The island of Grand Manan lies at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, the largest in a string of islands that stretches down the coast into the Gulf of Maine. Peter Cunningham first came to the island in his mother’s womb, accompanying his father, who studied fog on nearby Kent Island. As a child, Cunningham would get painfully seasick when he went out on the boats, but even then he noticed that traditional ways of life were changing: yoked teams of oxen were replaced by diesel-powered bulldozers and “dead reckoning” navigation was supplanted by radar.
Disappearing Before Our Eyes chronicles the quickening change sweeping across contemporary island life through the memories of older generations and the aspirations of the young. On Grand Manan, catch from the sea is still paying the bills and public investment goes into building wharves instead of tourist amenities. Cunningham’s photographs bear witness to the struggle to maintain an island culture of self-reliant individualism in the face of the economic forces of globalization.