ANNAPOLIS -- The environment, culture and economies of the Smith Island, Maryland and Tangier Island, Virginia—the Chesapeake Bay’s last two inhabited offshore islands—are documented through the lens of Annapolis-based photographer Jay Fleming in his second book, “Island Life.”

“Island Life,” set to be released on Oct. 28, includes 280-pages of photographs as Fleming shares an intimate understanding of island life through the relationships he has built with Smith and Tangier’s islanders over more than a decade.

“Island Life comes at a pivotal time for Smith and Tangier,” Fleming said in the release. “I have seen remarkable changes to the islands’ landscape and communities since my first trip there in 2009. Cemeteries are washing into the water, acres of marshland are disappearing, and the populations are in decline. I 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.”

Fleming’s attention to Smith and Tangier heightened after covering the Chesapeake’s seafood industry in his 2016 book, “Working the Water.” Countless trips to these remote islands over the next five years immersed Fleming into the island way of life. Fleming’s photographs capture the ways these tight-knit communities continue to be shaped by centuries of isolation from the mainland. The photographs encompass everything from the islands commercial fisheries and changing landscapes, to the people carrying forward long-standing traditions that have sustained the communities for two centuries.

Smith and Tangier Islands were initially settled as remote farming communities in the early 1800s. When the Chesapeake’s oyster fishery grew by the middle of the century, the islands populations increased. The islands became a perfect place for watermen to access the productive oyster and crabbing grounds in Tangier Sound and the mainstream of the bay.

In modern times, working the water has become less dependable as the economy and environment changed, causing many island families to abandon their ancestral homes for life on the mainland. “Island Life” captures a moment in time for the islands’ and the remaining residents—many of whom can trace their lineage to the islands’ original British settlers—as they stand strong in the face of an uncertain future.

For more information and to order Island Life, go online.