Fine art documentary photographer Wyatt Gallery is eager to reconnect with his Jewish part. The American-born photog is on the Rock (part of his island-hopping excursion) to document Jewish monuments for his latest in-progress assignment.

S O caught up with Gallery — toting his Canon camera and outfitted in a white tee and cargo shorts — last Monday at the Orange Street Jewish Cemetery where he was shooting the gravestones of ancestors, some who were born in the 19th century. He’s intent on documenting their final resting place, which he bemoans has fallen into decay.

It’s a similar trend Gallery has noticed in other Caribbean islands. “Most of the two dozen original cemeteries are either falling apart, or have been lost to natural disasters,” he shares.

Gallery is no stranger to documenting Caribbean countries that have experienced ruin. Indeed, his most recently published project Tent Life Haiti, a naked but hopeful photo book on the tumultuous aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti received worldwide press recognition and sold out its first edition in just three months.

His most recent book Jewish Treasures of the Caribbean takes the form of a photo book and travelling exhibition exploring the little-known history of Jews in the Caribbean. The remaining monuments which the book will highlight are the oldest synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in the Western hemisphere. Judging from the beautiful prelude we’ve been granted, we can expect Gallery’s new book to be in extremely high demand.

–Chenee Daley