Iron Harvest: Chesapeake Oyster Dredging

Iron Harvest offers a visual record of oyster dredging on the Chesapeake Bay, a centuries-old practice steeped in tradition, resilience, and conflict. These photographs capture the enduring labor of watermen who still work under rising suns and shifting winds, hauling steel-toothed dredges across the Bay’s ancient oyster beds. While the work is heavy and mechanical, the setting is anything but—each frame is steeped in the Bay’s natural beauty: radiant sunrises, open horizons, and waters reflecting the sky’s changing moods. This album honors both the legacy and the landscape—chronicling how watermen continue to navigate a life shaped by history, harvest, and the waters that sustain them.