A large crowd celebrates the traditional Latvian Midsummer festival (Jāņi) on a sandy beach in Latvia at dusk, wearing elaborate flower and oak leaf crowns, holding burning torches, and raising their hands around a huge, blazing bonfire near the Baltic Sea.
A large crowd is gathered on a sandy Baltic beach in Latvia to watch the traditional Jāņi bonfire (Jāņu ugunskurs), which is a massive stack of logs beginning to smoke, while a blurred young girl in a traditional Latvian folk costume blouse is in the foreground.
A crowd of people silhouettes on a Latvian beach gather near the Baltic Sea at sunset, with light fog or haze in the air, possibly during a traditional Midsummer celebration.
A young boy reacts in awe near a beach bonfire and torches during an evening gathering along the coast of Latvia.
A glowing fire basket stands in the foreground as people gather along a beach in Latvia at sunset.
A person holding a UV flashlight walks along a beach in Latvia at dusk, framed by yellow tinted glasses in the foreground.
A close-up of a blurred person wearing yellow glasses on a beach in Latvia with a red lighthouse lit up in the background.
A view from inside a car on a rainy day in Latvia showing a person outside pressing their hand against a rain-covered window.
A boat displaying the name of the city Liepāja docked at an industrial port in Latvia with train tanker cars in the background.
Coastal, erosion, Latvia, baltic sea, beach
Two men look out from the cabin of a fishing boat onto the Baltic Sea near the coast of Latvia.
A fisherman in a blue raincoat gestures on a boat off the coast of Latvia as a seagull flies overhead.
A bird flies above a building in Latvia featuring a large raven mural partially covered by green mesh netting under a bright blue sky.
A lone pine tree leans over sandy, eroded dunes along the Baltic Sea coastline in Latvia under a clear blue sky.
A child carrying a swim ring walks along a sandy beach in Latvia, framed by bare tree branches in the foreground.
People play ball on a sunny beach in Latvia, framed by large metal gymnastic rings installed in the sand.
People explore the massive concrete ruins of an old military bunker collapsing into the sea on a beach in Latvia.
Two people spend time near a concrete ramp on a sandy Baltic Sea beach framed by pine tree trunks in Latvia.
A dead pine tree has fallen among the tall green trees of a coastal forest in Latvia.
A man wearing a yellow cap and striped shirt holds out a cigarette while standing on a concrete pier in Latvia, with another angler sitting in the background.
People sunbathe on a sandy beach in Latvia, framed beneath the roots of a fallen tree lying on an eroded cliff.
A couple relaxes on a sandy beach in Latvia at the base of a heavily eroded sandy cliff littered with fallen tree trunks.
Yellow wild flowers grow among exposed roots on an eroded sandy coastal embankment in Latvia.
A motorcyclist stands under the overhang of a graffiti-covered concrete bunker by the sea in Latvia, with a motorcycle parked in the foreground.
Two young people stand behind large, graffiti-tagged concrete blocks along the coast in Latvia.
A fisherman holding a fishing rod walks carefully along a long, weathered stone pier in Latvia, with a red beacon visible at the end.
A hooded couple sits among large concrete tetrapods along the Baltic coast in Latvia during a pink and blue twilight sky.
A person holding a kite walks along a sandy beach at sunset in Latvia, framed through a window.
A leaning, weather-beaten pine tree lies close to the ground on a coastal dune in Latvia, framed by tall pine trunks against a clear blue sky.
An elderly couple stands by a makeshift wooden fence near the sea in Latvia.
A shirtless man stands on a grassy coastal bluff in Latvia looking towards a wooden cross made of driftwood by the sea.
An aerial tilt-shift view of a curving sandy shoreline and dunes along the coast of Latvia.
Tall, slender pine tree trunks stand in a row along a sandy ridge overlooking the sea in Latvia under a clear blue sky.
A woman wearing a yellow hooded jacket appears blurred in the foreground of a windy beach in Latvia, with concrete sea barriers and a building visible along the dunes under an overcast sky.
Waves crash against a partially submerged, crumbling concrete bunker offshore along the Baltic coast in Latvia under a stormy grey sky.
An old weathered building stands in the foreground, with coastal grass and the sea visible under a dim evening sky in Latvia.
A long exposure photo captures a motion-blurred figure running along the shore next to a tilted, abandoned concrete bunker resting in the sea under a sunset sky in Latvia.
A side profile of an older man wearing a beanie and glasses, silhouetted against a vibrant orange and pink sunset behind concrete breakwater blocks in Latvia.
A large painted mural of an elderly woman wearing a headscarf adorns the wall of a crumbling concrete bunker structure on a stony shore in Latvia under a cloudy sky.
A motion-blurred figure runs along an eroded sandy slope next to a stony beach in Latvia, with a house visible at top left under an overcast sky.
Cracked and collapsed concrete military bunker ruins sit on an eroded coastal cliff overlooking the calm Baltic Sea in Latvia.
A silhouetted small house and a lone figure stand against a twilight sky near the sea in Latvia, framed by a single sapling tree.
A hooded person walks along the beach next to a massive, tilted concrete bunker remnant on the coast of Latvia under an overcast sky.
A windswept tree arches over a wooden staircase leading down to a choppy, whitecapped sea in Latvia under a stormy grey sky.
A grainy, twilight image captures a lonely figure in a light jacket standing on a grassy hill surrounded by shadowy trees in Latvia under a deep teal sky.
A wooden tower overgrown with climbing ivy features a fish skeleton weather vane on top, with a flock of birds flying past under a muted teal sky in Latvia.
A silhouetted person walks past bushes, framed by the dark archway of a damaged concrete bunker structure in Latvia under a cloudy twilight sky.
Large triangular concrete breakwater blocks with metal lifting loops sit along a dark, moody coastline facing a calm ocean horizon in Latvia.
Two motion-blurred figures stand among massive concrete sea wall blocks on a rocky coast in Latvia under a muted evening sky.
A long exposure photo captures water droplets and the reflection of a motion-blurred figure in a puddle near concrete coastal defense structures and a pier extending into the Baltic Sea in Latvia.
A motion-blurred hooded figure moves past the wooden ribs of a decaying ship graveyard hidden in a dense, dark forest near the coast in Latvia.
A tall red brick lighthouse with its beacon illuminated stands against a deep blue night sky next to old coastal buildings in Latvia.

Almost every year as a child, I spent several weeks of summer in Latvia – a country whose Baltic Sea coast still smells, to me, of pine trees, seaweed, and salt. But it is not only that scent that shapes my memory. Above all, it is the light: the distinctive light of the setting sun and the light in the midst of a storm.

I had not returned to Latvia since childhood. When I learned that Courland’s coast loses around 15 hectares of land to erosion each year, I wanted to see it for myself. I decided to photograph along those parts of the coast where erosion is most visible. I wanted to see the land of my dreams once more – or rather, what it had become.

It soon became clear to me just how profoundly Latvia’s Baltic Sea coast is changing. Here, coastal erosion is not an abstract prediction for the future, but part of everyday life. Homes, historic buildings, border-guard installations, agricultural land, wastewater treatment plants, and tourist infrastructure are increasingly at risk – or have already been lost.

And the people? They still celebrate the summer solstice right on the coast. They continue to gather amber with passion and to fish – even though the sea no longer provides what it did in my childhood. Water pollution and the newly built breakwaters intended to protect the coast from erosion are making coastal fishing increasingly difficult. With concrete slabs, tetrapods, and rubble, people persistently try to protect their homes and livelihoods.

And Courland’s coast still smells of pine trees, seaweed, and salt.

This photographic project was supported by the Stiftung Kulturwerk of VG Bild-Kunst.