For two months I photographed my life with my wife and twin daughters at home in Ranst, a village near Antwerp, Belgium. Every day I posted one photo from his “Corona Diary” on social media. And now there is the book. “An Unexpected Lesson in Joy” is an intimate photo diary that slowly meanders between uncertainty and joie de vivre.
14 March 2020. A strange calm descends upon the land. The virus keeps everyone inside and paralyses public life. The rat race grinds to a halt. We don’t know what’s coming our way. With the prospect of a long-term quarantine, I start a diary. I photograph familiar things: my home, my family. In this reduced world there is time, there is silence. And then spring comes.
An Unexpected Lesson in Joy – Nick Hannes Self-published in collaboration with The Falabella Stable 104 pages, 49 colour photographs Soft cover, 16x23cm English/Dutch ISBN 9789464072068 €22 + shipping – available in my webshop
1€ per sold book goes to Doctors Without Borders to support the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
Printed at die Keure, BrugesBillie and Suzanne, the main characters of the story, are holding the first copies.In times of distress we realize what really matters. And what doesn’t.A week already. Every day is like Sunday. No cut-through traffic in our street during rush hour. Even the murmur of freight traffic on the motorway down the road has faded.
About admin
Nick Hannes (°1974) is a photographer based in Antwerp, Belgium. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts KASK in Ghent, he worked for various media in Belgium and The Netherlands. Meanwhile he reported on social and political issues in the Balkans and the Middle East. In 2009 his first book ‘Red Journey’, a documentary about transition in the 15 former Soviet republics, was published by Lannoo. 'Mediterranean. The Continuity of Man', a documentary portrait of the Mediterranean region, follows in 2014. His latest book is 'Garden of Delight', a series that won the Magnum Photography Award 2017 and the Zeiss Photography Award 2018.
Since 2008 Nick teaches documentary photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK/School of Arts) in Ghent. He is represented by Panos Pictures (London).
