SQUASSUX PASTORAL

2024—2025

Just down the road from me in Brookhaven Hamlet is Squassux Landing, where Carmens River opens up into the Great South Bay, on the south shore of Long Island. The Unkechaug people who inhabited this area for thousands of years used the site to launch fishing, clamming, and whaling expeditions.

The name is said to originate from an Unkechaug potter named Wessquassucks who lived in that place at the time of first contact with colonial settlers.

The landing was within a vast slice of Long Island procured by colonialists from the Unkechaug chief Tobaccus in 1664. With that land transfer, the native population was rapidly supplanted by colonial settlers.

Over the years, the landing passed through various private hands, yet always remained accessible. In 1945, it came under the ownership of the Brookhaven Village Association, which developed and maintains the site, now endangered by rising sea levels.

Photographs are all 5-minute exposures. Gelatin silver prints. Various sizes. Editions of 5.