The vanishing coastline

A photographer spent a year on the Avalon coast, documenting a shoreline that is retreating by up to two meters a year.

Rafael Quintero

and

Inés Duarte

October 12, 2026 2:54 pm EDT

Updated

12:54 pm EDT

For a year, photographer Rafael Quintero walked the same 40 kilometers of coastline every month. These are some of the places he returned to, and what changed.

A curving beach and headland seen from above — The southern headland, where the coastal road once ran. The last section closed in 2023. *Photo: Ma. Alejandra / Unsplash*

“You notice it first in the small things: a fence post on the beach, a path that ends in the air,” Quintero said. “Then one month a whole section of cliff is gone.”