A Series of 180 Photographs of Untouched Strandings from the West Coast of Denmark

Wreckage 2006–2026 portrays untouched strandings along the Danish west coast. Created over a period of twenty years, the series records objects that, on their journey across the North Sea, were lost from ships, shaped by wind, weather and waves, and eventually washed ashore exactly as they were found.

“Wreckage began as an autobiographical project and evolved into a two-decade record of what washes ashore in the age of plastic …”

Fish crates, ropes, nets, buoys, containers and other fragments of a man-made world lie stranded in the natural landscape. Through the photographer’s lens they emerge as archaeological finds and still lifes shaped by wind, weather and waves.

The photographs are made without staging or artificial lighting, recording nature’s own compositions exactly as they appeared. The series draws on Denmark’s longstanding tradition of strandfogeder, coastal wardens who record and safeguard valuable goods washed ashore for return to their owners. Yet the photographs portray wreckage that no one wants to claim or take responsibility for.

The series was photographed along the Danish west coast from Skagen to Fjand, including several of Europe’s best-known surf spots, and has previously been exhibited in Denmark and Germany.

“The series chronicles the latest chapter in the long and dramatic history of wreckage along Denmark’s west coast”