Photographer:Tadas Kazakevicius
Continent: Europe
Country: Lithuania
Project Title: Between Two Shores
Project Continent: Europe
Project Country: Lithuania
Nominated By: Vladimir Karamazov

Maybe it is not a coincidence that human always chooses to stay close to the water as the water always works as an energy source or even connects you to the other matter. But what if it is a space between two waters?

Curonian Spit is rich by two shores – the Baltic sea, which is washing its eastern border, and the Curonian lagoon, which separates this narrow strip of land from the mainlands. By being right in the middle of it person is never too far from one or another shore – one or another source of energy. Maybe it is not a coincidence that this land that sometimes resembles a whole different planet is divided by such an interesting ratio. If you share the land evenly among every person living there you would get a very close number of π (3,14159), which somehow supposes the golden ratio of human and his space.

Here space is supposed to be heard, smelled, absorbed, felt with all the possible senses – eyes do not show enough. Here you need to hear the whispering of the ancient forests, the wailing of the girls for the old Griekinė linden tree, or the waving of the amber bay, telling the great history of this sacred place. You need to feel anxiety created in the air by the alien birds and to find inner peace by meeting the sun on one shore and bid her farewell on the other.



The airport sheep.

In this landscape, sheep are roaming freely in abandoned airport in Curonian Spit, Lithuania.

Albertas. The Sculptor.

Local sculptor Albertas ‘feels’ his place in Griekyne, a boggy forest on the Curonian Spit, Lithuania, where, at a tree called Sin Linden, old people would come to pray to the Baltic gods and repent their sins.

Vitalija. Wife of the departed artist.

Vitalija, wife of an artist who has passed away, stands beside a boat her late husband was planning to restore, on the Curonian Spit, Lithuania.

Cormorant. The alien bird.

Cormorants were once culled as they reduced fishing yields, but have been making a comeback since the 1980s, just as Lithuanians have been returning to the Curonian Spit since World War II.

Timelessness.

Snow covers sand dunes, hinting at how summer and winter can cross on the Curonian Spit, Lithuania.

Saulius. The purist.

Saulius, a graphic artist born in Vilnius, Lithuania, relocated to live in Curonian Spit many years ago.

Unidentified structure.

A former Soviet meteorological station sits in the dunes at Preila, on the Curonian Spit, Lithuania.

Arunas. The rest house owner.

Arunas is famous for driving his big Ford Thunderbird around this part of the Curonian Spit, Lithuania.

Naked roots.

A tree with strong washed roots stands on a beach of the Curonian Lagoon, Lithuania.

Karolis. The young fisherman.

Karolis is the first of a new generation of fishermen. In the past, the Curonian Spit in Lithuania was famed for its fishing, but the older generation has died off.