Photo essay

After the season

Four months in a seaside village after the last guests have left, in pictures and a few notes.

By Mia Hoffmann, photographs and text

Feb 2, 20264 min read

Fig. 1 The bay on the last Sunday in October. One umbrella is still up.Photo Mia Hoffmann

By the end of October the holiday flats are dark, and the village shrinks to the 380 people who live here all year. The bakery opens two hours later. The bus comes twice a day instead of nine times.

I came for a week and stayed until March. What I wanted to see was what a place looks like when nobody is watching it.

Fig. 2 Haze over the water at nine in the morning. The light stays like this until noon.Photo Mia Hoffmann

The tide sets the day more than the clock does. People plan their errands around it, and nobody minds being late if the water was high.

Fig. 3 The lake behind the hills. In winter the village walks here on Sundays.Photo Mia Hoffmann

Most of the people who stay live in one block by the harbor. In February its neighbors started cooking together on Saturdays, and by March the whole stairwell smelled of fish soup.

Fig. 4 The block by the harbor where most people live all year, and a living room on its fourth floor.Photos Mia Hoffmann