Kystalnd by Urlik Hasemann and Mathias Svold is a photographic project depicting the uncertain future of Denmark’s treasured coastlines.
In Denmark you’re never more than 30 miles from the sea. Aside from Jutland’s boundary with Germany, Denmark is entirely surrounded by water, with a total of 5,437 miles of coastline, or kystland. So naturally Danish photographers Mathias Svold and Ulrik Hasemann grew up going to the beach. Many of their childhood memories play out there; fishing for crabs in summertime or cavorting on the ice in winter. It’s the ever-changing subject in their collaborative photo project Kystland.
"The coast plays an important role in the identity of the Danish everyday life (...) It is a workplace, a breathing space, a political battleground while also being the heart of the Danish tourist industry. It brings both environmental and socio-political conflicts and values up for debate.
The coast has remained almost untouched the last century with free public access, but the coast is ever-changing. Both nature and society are under pressure. The ocean eats its way into the land and swallows houses, cities expand along the shores all the time while climate changes lead to rising sea levels. This ongoing long-term project investigates how nature, people and the society use and affect the coast and it explores the relationship and tension between human and nature".
Text provided by authors Ulrik Hasemann and Mathias Svold.
