Scarborough Reef

Scarborough Reef is a largely submerged atoll located about 300 kilometres off the coast of the Philippines and nearly 900 kilometres from the Chinese island of Hainan. After China occupied the reef in 2012, the Philippine government took the case to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague. A ruling in 2016 declared China's claims to the atoll illegal. However, China does not recognise the ruling. The Beijing government claims the entire South China Sea. The Philippines wants the atoll back. Now Beijing only allows Chinese fishermen to fish on the reef.

In March 2024, Johanna-Maria Fritz travels with Filipino fishermen who are fighting for their livelihoods at the centre of this global conflict and continue to fish as usual. The photographer spends more than a week with them on a wooden boat hundreds of kilometres from the mainland. Chinese military boats circle the boat. Fritz wears a protective hood to avoid being spotted by the Chinese military. On the way back, the wooden boat is caught in a storm and the research turns out to be one of the photographer's most dangerous journeys to date.