Inventory of the Impermanent is a portrait of Fishers Island, NY, a small island accessible by ferry from New London, CT. The ferry ride is only 45 minutes but the world that awaits when you disembark is unique in its degree of isolation. In the late 1900s the island was developed as a tourist destination for wealthy New Englanders. The island was divided in half with resort-like establishments on the island’s west end and a private, residential development designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted on the island’s east end. The market crash in 1929 froze development and shuttered the island’s west end resorts. Many of the island's property owners were spared the worst of the depression and were able to use the downturn to secure their hold on the island. Their vision for the island’s future was of a place frozen in time exclusive to the island’s summer residents. This vision necessitated a second class of people that would call the island home year-round and enable its success by providing essential services. Inventory of the Impermanent is focused on this year-round population of roughly 200 people and their experience of the island.

As a year-round resident myself from 2016-2023 I can say with certainty that on Fishers Island one experiences time in a different way. There are fewer distractions and less competition. This frees up the mind to pay attention to different units of time – the switching of the tide, the life cycle of plants, fish and mollusks, the seasonal change in wind patterns, even the comings and goings of a summer population. To escape the arbitrary imposition of time divided into years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds is one of the island’s greatest pleasures. It is bitter sweet, however, because as the units of time grow you realize how few of them you will live to experience.

Inventory of the Impermanent is to be published by Not Pictures.