From the Gulf of Naples to the sunsets of Hawaii, we’ve selected five photography series from the AnOther archive exploring the sultry delights of summertime
Among other things, summer is the season of yearning, lusting and wearing fewer clothes. The heat makes us febrile; more animal. It’s the pinnacle of abundance and sweetness – fruit ripens and rots in the intense heat. Conversely, there’s also something very nostalgic about this time of year – we can’t help but think of the long summers of childhood. Nostalgia by its very nature is always tinged with sadness and, as we know, summertime sadness is the sexiest and most sultry sadness of them all.
Whatever connotations summer has for you, hopefully you’ll be able to find something evocative in one of the photo projects below. We’ve selected five series by photographers each exploring an aspect of summertime. From Brett Lloyd’s obsession with Naples to Sam Youkilis’ beguiling search for sunkissed beauty, take a look through these pictures to amplify your summertime longing.
Summer, Farewell by Joanna Wzorek
Poland-born, London-based photographer Joanna Wzorek’s first love was painting, and you can see this in the composition and vivid colour palettes of her arresting photographs. In Summer, Farewell, a zine she created in the heady freedom of post-lockdown, Wzorek returned to the verdant countryside of rural Poland with her camera. “At the start I didn’t know what I would produce out of it,” she recalled. “Most of it was shot in the countryside. I just visited friends … and we did a little road trip in the car, going through and noticing things through the windows. It was quite spontaneous and actually a very joyful experience.” In what she describes as “a postcard from Poland”, Wzorek presents a dreamy and sometimes surreal evocation of Polish summertime with her melange of farmyard animals, flowers, friends and spontaneous nudes.
Napoli, Napoli, Napoli by Brett Lloyd
12 years ago, photographer Brett Lloyd was on his way to Sorrento when he missed the train and was stranded in Naples. Wandering round the city, he was captivated by the city’s febrile atmosphere, its character and faded grandeur. “I was mesmerised by it,” he remembers. “These beautiful yellow streetlights and tiny alleyways. I was just like, what the fuck is this place?”
Every summer since, instead of passing through Naples en route to the upscale resorts on the Amalfi Coast, Lloyd has instead fixed upon the city as his destination. Since then he’s amassed a wealth of images paying homage to Napoli and its many subcultures and communities, from the city’s revered third gender femminielli clustered around the Spanish Quarter to the sunbathers on the rocky coast. It’s an intoxicating love letter to Neapolitan life.
Días by Pia Riverola
Pia Riverola inspires travel-lust like few other photographers. Shot over six years, Dias is a tapestry of precious moments – golden-hour sunlight catching glasses of wine on a linen tablecloth, a glimpse of Mount Fuji through a train window, a Hawaiian sunset, water flowers cresting the surface of a pond – taken on a mixture of holidays and work assignments. Riverola’s pictures are luscious and gestural; they make you yearn to be in a far-flung place. “I often find myself observing routines and quotidian moments,“ she says. “Gestures, a sunset, objects placed in certain places, the remains after a long lunch, common errands. Moments that seem to have a lack of importance but are how our days go by.”
Somewhere by Sam Youkilis
No doubt you already follow Sam Youkilis on Instagram for his enchanting pictures and videos of idyllic locations, charming locals and beautiful cuisine … the reflections of palazzos in the Grand Canal, the glittering waters of the Mediterranean, amorous exchanges at Parisian cafes, crates of produce at Neapolitan street markets. The American photographer, now based in the Italian countryside in Umbria, brought together a collection of his captivating, sun-drenched photographs in his debut book, Somewhere. “My work is the result of being deeply curious,” he says. “[It’s about] looking and a never-ending search.”
Canal Divers by José Cuevas
As the recent apocalyptic heatwave that scorched western Europe, Paris reached hellish, unprecedented temperatures. As one of the city’s many concessions to the demonic heat, authorities allowed swimming in the usually restricted Canal Saint-Martin. “The canal feels impossible in the middle of Paris, transformed into a suburban pool by the giddiness of summer break,” explains writer Pedro Vasconcelos, who joined photographer José Cuevas while documenting the young men and women congregating on the banks of this dubiously unsanitary oasis in the heart of the feverish city. Cuevas’ portraits capture the abandon with which bodies are hurled into the water and the particular pleasure of wet skin drying under the high sun.
