Photographers in A Coruña & the Costa da Morte

A Coruña sits on a rock between two seas, and it gives a photographer three completely different sets within a few kilometres. The Tower of Hercules is the oldest working lighthouse in the world, standing alone on a headland of grass, rock and open sky, with a sculpture park and the Atlantic on three sides; it is a UNESCO site with a ticket to climb, and the free ground around it is where most of the shooting happens. Facing the harbour, the Avenida da Mariña carries the galerías — a long, white wall of glazed wooden balconies built to keep the rain out, which is why the city is called the glass city. Behind them the old town runs to the Praza de María Pita, and on the ocean side the Riazor and Orzán beaches sit inside the city itself, with a seafront promenade that runs for kilometres. West of the city the Costa da Morte begins: Muxía, where the sanctuary of A Virxe da Barca stands on bare rock at the water's edge, rebuilt after lightning burnt it in 2013, and Cabo Fisterra, the km 0 of the Camino, where pilgrims watch the sun go into the Atlantic. Two hours east, in Ribadeo, Praia das Catedrais opens its stone arches at low tide and needs a free permit in high season — check the dates and tide table together. Galicia is green because it rains; May to September is the season, the light after a squall is the best of the year, and a session here plans for wind.