The Last Days of Summer

The end of summer always seems to creep up on us when we least expect it. Just as we're starting to adjust to the long balmy nights and the bright sunny days, they disappear in a flurry of autumn leaves and winter chills. But with autumn traditionally comes new beginnings, fresh starts and plenty to look forward to. So to say a fond farewell to the final days of the season, we asked our contributors for their favourite summer memories and what they're looking forward to in the last days of summer.

(Above) AnOther commissioning editor, Laura Bradley: "Ed Ruscha's word art always sums up how I feel. Simple but brilliantly effective."

AnOther editor, Nancy Waters: "Campervans, campfires and dreams."

David & Angela, IDEA Books: "This is the most amazing double page from 'Paula's Ibiza', the book of the tiny Ibiza fashion boutique. It marks both the end of the summer for us but also the start of something new. We stage our first ever exhibition, Ibiza: Moments In Love, at the ICA in London from November this year!"

Michel Gaubert: "This has to be the last days of summer, the shark symbolises September."

AnOther editorial assistant, Tish Wrigley: "There is something wonderful, but also incredibly sad, about being on the cusp of August and September. Things are easing off, the days are getting shorter and life is more about languorous sunsets than energised sunrises."

Ananda Pellerin, The Hunger columnist and contributing writer: "I visited Ramsgate for the first time this summer. I loved the coastline and walking across the mudflats - losing all sense of direction under the clear sky. Wild cherries, blueberries, and dogs frolicking everywhere, plus an abandoned heliport! What a beautiful place."

Chris Hatherill, Super/Collider: "Watching the sun set over the distant mountains of Connemara from the tiny island of Inis Oírr after an afternoon pub session with Steffi and Virginia from Panorama Bar was a high summer highlight. They had to wind down by 9pm as the oldies were having a live fiddle band play at their dance. We were out there for a tiny biennale called Drop Everything, and will be building an astronomical observatory installation there later this year. That's the nice thing about astronomy – as the summer ends the stars come out earlier each night.

Neil Wissink, photographer for The Hunger: "Taking my parents dog for an evening walk along the cliffside on Grand Manan island, New Brunswick. Spotting migrating humpback whales in the distance."

AnOther fashion co-ordinator, Mhairi Graham: "I am looking forward to Unknown Festival in Rovinj, Croatia. A week of sunshine, parties, music and beaches with my best friends."

AnOther photographic producer, Thea Charlesworth: "Summer days of pugs by the pool."

AnOther editorial assistant, Daisy Woodward: "Stealing Beauty epitomises what I love about summer and the way I feel when it ends. Bertolucci hones in on all its best parts – the fields, the sunshine, the frolicking, the eating and drinking – as well as capturing that sense of a chapter ending when summer draws to a close, and the strange mixture of sadness and excitement that follows."

Text by Rhiannon Wastell