Teenagers relaxing in Lough Erne, near the Irish-UK border

Photograph by Andrew Testa Chosen by David Campbell

Europe is an idea as much as it is a geopolitical reality. No such project is perfect, and the need for internal reform is great.Today, though, the challenge to Europe is from nativist, nostalgic and populist movements seeking, not reform, but the revolutionary dismantling of this post-war order. However, as The Economist’s Jeremy Cliffe recently wrote, “the reality is at once more prosaic and more poetic than either side allows: the European project knows no higher ideal than calm good living.” Andrew Testa’s quiet yet poetic photograph of teenagers on a summer’s day is a symbol of this.

Taken in Lough Er ne, Northern Ireland, it shows some teenage boys, three from the Republic and one from the North, relaxing on a makeshift jetty near the border between the United Kingdom and the Repub lic of Ireland.

Brexit could shatter the “calm good living” of the boys in Testa’s photo. Currently, the border between north and south on the island of Ireland is marked by an absence – the absence of border fences and custom posts – that enables the free movement of people and goods. However, if the UK exits the EU without an agreement, a hard border will have to be reimposed, and lives that are now intertwined and flow together with ease will be divided and made more difficult. The idea of Europe will be challenged by the fact that teenagers will find it harder to commune together. In Testa’s image, we can sense an everyday moment that could be unnecessarily lost. David Campbell is a writer, professor and producer, and currently the Director of Programs and Outreach at the World Press Photo Foundation in Amsterdam, a position that involves the strategic coordination of the Foundation’s communications, contests, education, and outreac h.