Summer and photography are the perfect match: no season evokes a stronger sense of nostalgia and no medium is better-equipped to evoke that.

Whether documenting Mediterranean coastlines, chance encounters along the Danube, or niche music festivals tucked away in the woods, the photo books and series below capture a more idyllic, escapist vision of summer than you may be experiencing right now, as yet another heatwave descends on Europe: no tossing and turning in bed at night or sweating on the bus here. 

AKILA BERJAOUI, THE POSSIBLE DREAM (2026)

Sensual visuals and timeless Mediterranean allure have long defined Akila Berjaoui’s portfolio, and her upcoming photography book is no different. The sense of freedom associated with seaside summer days is a central theme, as Berjaoui captures her subjects wading in the water and reclining on the beach in the late afternoon sun. Building on her previous book, The Last Days of Summer (2017), this latest edition documents summers between 2020 and 2025, when Covid prevented mass tourism in the Greek Cyclades, the Balearics, Italy and Tunisia.

While the project may not read as obviously political, Berjaoui views it in relation to her ongoing support for Palestine. She says, “I’m going to keep speaking out and dreaming of a world no longer broken by violence, genocide, injustice and our own maximalism. I hope these photographs encourage people to embrace a simpler way of living, shaped by land, season, water, rest, and pleasure. The Possible Dream is exactly that: a possible dream”.

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

KIRK LISAJ, BEST OUT OF TOWN (2023)

In this zine, Kirk Lisaj captures Best Out of Town, a community festival in Northern Ontario which has a prominent queer and trans presence, even though it’s not labelled as such. “A lot of the time in explicitly queer nightlife spaces, there’s so much emphasis on sexuality and scanning the room, trying to find a hookup. That has its place for sure, but sometimes it gets tiring,” Lisaj says. From crowded beaches to late-night campfires, Lisaj documents a gentler, softer vision of queer euphoria. “It’s not about capturing high drama or trying to force a mood,” he says.

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

SAFFRON MCLEOD, IN DEBT, IN DOUBT, IN DANCE

In Debt, In Doubt, In Dance by Saffron McLeod documents a free-flowing summer of lounging on the beach, dance floor indulgence and morning-after moments of clarity. “We were at a dance festival in Portugal,” McLeod explained of her photo series. “A couple of friends were DJing and we came to support. It was the perfect escape, disrupting the mundanity of everyday life and nine-to-five jobs.” For McLeod, these photos embody a philosophy of ‘optimistic nihilism’, capturing moments of hedonism and joie de vivre.  

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

GUILLAUME BIHAN AND DARIA SVERTILOVA, OF STREAMS AND LIGHTHOUSES, AND IN BETWEEN (2025)

A collaboration between Guillaume Bihan and Daria Svertilova, Of Streams and Lighthouses, and In Between traces the path of the Danube River through ten countries, capturing young people along its banks amid a moment of rising political stability. The project in 2022 began when Bihan, who is French, moved into a flat with Svertilova, who is Ukranian, and wanted to empathise more deeply with the experience of being from a country at a war. While the images often have an idyllic, langorous quality, there is also a sense of storm clouds on the horizon, of tension and latent violence. “The continent is in a critical state,” as Bihan put it.

Read the full story here on Dazed. 

ORIOL MASPONS, IBIZA (MID-50S TO 1980S)

Few photography series could make us long so intensely for a past most of us never experienced as Oriol Maspons’ portraits of Ibizian culture from the mid-50s to the end of the 80s. The series’ slightly surreal, irreverant spirit is perhaps best defined by an image of a man, inexplicably, dressed as the Pink Panther. From hot, sunny beaches (where subjects often recline nude) to ecstatic scenes in crowded clubs, the images evoke a sense of freedom before the island became, as Maspon’s son Alex suggests, a superficial, crassly commercial playground for the rich.

Read the full story here on Dazed.