Peter Cunningham

The journey of Buddhism over centuries, from India to China and then to Japan, is the stuff of mythology. But now, in our own time, we have witnessed and documented its historic crossing of the Pacific and its subsequent evolution in the Americas and Europe.In 1982, writer Peter Muryo Matthiessen, the first dharma successor of Roshi Bernie Glassman, traveled with Glassman to pay respects to the teachers in their lineage, some of the great living Zen masters of twentieth-century Japan. What took place was an important meeting of minds representing the past, present, and future of Zen practice, an intimate connection between ancestors and descendants marking a critical point in the Zen journey from the East to the West. This historic event was captured in the moment by the selective lens of Peter Cunningham. Matthiessen's exquisite poetic accounts of this pilgrimage, which formed a part of his book Nine-Headed Dragon River, accompany the photos.

“The sustained focus and lyrical engagement of Peter Cunningham’s work has been most profound in his bearing witness to ‘The Rock’ and its people — fishermen, clamdiggers, dulse pickers, worshippers, toddlers, centenarians, shipbuilders and ship wreckers, quilters, and bakers.” — Alison Hawthorne Deming Nestled in the sparkling waters of the Bay of Fundy, Grand Manan Island is a haven of natural beauty, accessible only by ferry, boat, and airplane. For more than a century, visitors have spent the summer months on the Island. Year round, it’s home to a network of communities and a thriving fishery. Peter Cunningham first came to Grand Manan as a child, accompanying his father, who was studying the fog on nearby Kent Island. As a child, he observed how traditional methods of fishing were already changing with the advent of new technologies like fathometers and radar. Today, the pace of change has quickened. Disappearing Before Our Eyes chronicles contemporary island life on Grand Manan, from the fishing industry impacted by new technology, uncertain market conditions, and climate change, to the stories of island residents — the memories of older generations and the hopes of the young. As Cunningham writes, “I’ve been privileged to have lived my life in community with six generations of Grand Mananers. In this book I’m honouring what is disappearing, but also a place teeming with human life and unpredictable promise.”

Reprint of the original, first published in 1843.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1857.