This week a feature interview with Belgian photographer Nick Hannes about his expansive project Mediterranean: The Continuity of Man.
Feature Interview:
Nick Hannes with Alison Stieven-Taylor
St. Tropez, France
Belgian photographer Nick Hannes visited 20 countries over a four-year period to create his expansive body of work ‘Mediterranean: The Continuity of Man,’ which is now a book and also a touring exhibition. In all, he made 20 trips to tell a compelling story about this unique part of the world. The only country he didn't get to cover was Syria, for obvious reasons.
?Once you start a task like this there's no manner again,? He laughs of his obsession to pursue the tale at incredible non-public price.
Nick explains the mission has its roots in a long-held fascination for the Mediterranean that dates again to his kids whilst at school he found out approximately this sea that turned into on the cradle of civilisation.
?I become intrigued with the ancient information of this vicinity that changed into a crossroads of cultures and in which the cross-pollination of thoughts saw the international locations at the Mediterranean evolve plenty faster than the ones on mainland Europe.?
?I wanted to see what turned into left of this concept of a crossroads between continents, an area where throughout history loads of trade passed off. If you observe it now, it?S a region of fault strains, a vicinity of conflicts and crisis. So that was the start line, but as I started to travel and picture I absolutely opened up my thoughts and my eyes and I photographed as a good deal as feasible.?
Nick says that after the first few journeys positive issues began to recur together with urbanisation, the effect of tourism on the landscape and also migration.
Benidorm, Spain
Bijela, Montenegro
Ibiza, Spain
La Grande Motte, France
At the time he turned into operating, various international locations in the vicinity were within the midst of transformation and events which include the Arab Spring and the crises in Greece are also incorporated in this frame of labor.
Cairo, Egypt
Sirte, Libya
Sirte, Libya
Rafah, Gaza
?I ended up with a totally complex story with extraordinary storylines that are constantly connected by way of the Mediterranean. The final results of the challenge is that I confront different parallel realities; the jet set tourism in Monaco and southern France and on the alternative side the dramatically distinctive living conditions within the Gaza Strip and the results of the battle in Libya. So all of these extremes and contrasts are within the undertaking.?
The Mediterranean is frequently described as a haven for tourism and gastronomy and the Mediterranean life-style is put forward as the ideal way to live. But whilst you have a look at the map and notice that this sea touches 3 distinct continents you start to recognise how diverse this location of the sector absolutely is and these complexities come via in Nick's illuminating and insightful body of work.
Nick provides a completely unique view of the Mediterranean, and his pics are at times pretty political by aim and layout; there's no try and dress up the Mediterranean to provide the proper photo. Nick's beach pics, for instance, often feature a stressful detail like an commercial backdrop, or an oil rig, that's the case within the picture of the beach at Montenegro.
These factors signify not simplest the environmental degradation of the place, however additionally the variations in lifestyles raising questions of equality, power and the distribution of wealth.
Much of his travels were made by car and he says he was at times "very upset" to see how little of the natural landscape is left in the wake of urbanisation and as a result of the impact of tourism. Committed to tell this story, Nick self-funded the project, but he says it goes far beyond economics when you factor time and energy. “Everything else had to make way for this project as it was a priority”.
Algiers, Algeria
?The paintings may be very critical toward ourselves, how we treat our environment, how we treat refugees, how we respond to different human beings. I experience very concerned about what's going on inside the vicinity and in the world in preferred. This isn't always a completely sustainable manner of residing proper now, each socially and ecologically,? He says.
?This assignment is a replicate to ourselves, however I don?T want to dictate the tale. Those who study those pictures will pick out out their own truths. I don?T trust in one truth, after I journey I always come back with greater questions than answers. Some photographs might be complicated, however that?S right due to the fact people can reflect onconsideration on the image and study into what they will.?
I ask Nick about the picture of the 3 guys status above a massive hollow in Cyprus with the caption: ?The committee on lacking people in Cyprus? (below).
?That?S exquisite that you ask me about this photograph, you are the first character, maximum human beings just flip the web page and that they don?T look at it. This is a photograph that needs a caption of route. In the Civil War of Cyprus a variety of humans disappeared from each the Greek and Turkish groups. They are still seeking out human stays from 40 years in the past. Often bodies were thrown in water wells. This hollow is an antique water nicely and they used big cranes to make this big pit. It is improbable the amount of effort that is placed into the manner of searching for the stays of one individual. So there?S this committee for lacking people.? Nick tells that whilst he was there the remains of two humans had been located. At their funerals the stays were positioned in tiny coffins. The funerals have been exceedingly emotional, years of uncertainty laid to rest with the bones of loved ones.
Serendipitous Moments
While Nick is an in depth planner he?S also open to possibility and a number of photos inside the e-book point to being in the proper place at the proper time just like the wedding reception in a gas station in Greece, which is certainly one of my favored snap shots.
Rio, Greece
?This changed into a gift from the pictures gods,? He laughs. ?I changed into camping close by and I saw this gas station in which these types of tables have been well set with candles and plant life. The proprietor told me he had gotten married that day and to save cash he determined to keep the birthday party on the gasoline station as opposed to renting a hall. So it?S a tale about the disaster and the way the center elegance is suffering from the monetary state of affairs in Greece.?
Nick changed into invited to the party. ?I stayed the entire night time till 3 o?Clock while each person became completely inebriated except me. It became the fine wedding reception I?D been to. It was an first rate occasion. They said to me 'despite the fact that they take our final Euro cent we are able to now not prevent making party and dancing'. Later they sent me a letter thanking me for making them famous as the photo turned into picked up in Greece and turned into published in Japan, Asia and America too. It became a way of displaying the crisis with out stereotypes of people begging inside the streets or waiting in line at ATMs so I suppose that turned into the cause it turned into picked up through the media?.
Another of my favourite photographs is the one of the Spanish families eating hamburgers in La Linea de la Concepcion, Spain on the border of Gibraltar. Here the women are dressed in traditional flamenco outfits and the colours are vibrant evoking a true sense of celebration. It's also an idiosyncratic image; eating hamburgers in your finery. “Every year they celebrate the traditional flamenco and it is an amazing festival, with very loud music. I like loud music, but this was too much for me,” he laughs. “But it’s also very political and provocative and they have the national flag on display and I think they play the loud music as a signal to the British over the border that they are having more fun”.
One of Nick?S favored photographs is of an African man selling items to a bare white female on the naturalist seashore in St. Tropez, France (at the top of this tale). ?It?S a photo full of contrasts among rich and bad, north and south, man and female, African and European, naked and dressed. There are plenty of distinctive layers and also it combines two large subjects I photographed: tourism and migration?. He says he may be very present on the seaside and his digital camera is apparent. He doesn?T attempt to photograph secretly as human beings get the incorrect idea. ?While I became photographing I advised them I turned into making a image and the woman didn?T even react. I had met the man in advance and he turned into aware about what I was doing. He turned into fine with that?.
Another of his favourites is of the couple in Spain having a photo in a protracted, skinny shadow. ?You feel the heat inside the image, they're very isolated on this tiny stretch of shadow as they try to escape the warmth. It?S approximately tourism and environment. People pass there to have a great time, but it?S too hot to experience?.
Valencia, Spain
While maximum of the pix in the series are made outdoor on the streets there may be one exception: the prostitute and her client. ?This is a prostitute in a cheap inn room in downtown Athens. I become type of taken aback after I walked in this area because of the quantity of prostitutes and junkies shooting up in wide daylight hours. You can see this in any large metropolis, but I?D by no means seen this in Athens so overtly. I wanted to have this in the undertaking as properly. I first of all spoke to prostitutes within the streets, but they all sent me away; prostitution and images isn't always a terrific combination! But this female agreed to be photographed so long as she wasn?T recognisable and the patron agreed too. So I ended up on this awful lodge room with two human beings having intercourse in the front of me. It changed into a very strange experience. This become the beginning of the stumble upon and I left quickly after as I didn?T want express pix!?
Athens, Greece
Incorporating images like this breaks the rhythm of the e book and makes you stop and think about what you?Re looking at. Although Nick says a few humans have stated they don?T find it irresistible, the photo makes you pause and reflect.
I ask if he thinks pictures can exchange social perceptions, attitudes. ?I assume the influence is very restricted. People?S minds are not without difficulty modified. When people have a look at my images and are touched through what I need to say, I think they are already aware of what goes on in our global. People who don?T have the same thoughts as I have, I don?T think I can persuade them, but I don?T think it?S my role to persuade human beings?. 
In conclusion he says, ?Photography is an summary language and there are a number of folks who aren't able to examine photos, in particular layered images inclusive of I attempt to make. Video with sound and shifting photos are more likely to have a right away emotional affect on people. It is the reflective nature of photography that draws me. Quite literally I take a step back to look a broader context when I picture. The surroundings, the environment and the connection with people and how they form their environment is what pursuits me. I wish people mirror greater on a photo and think about positive matters just for themselves. But I don?T want to give solutions, I need to elevate questions?.
End note: When we met in Sydney at Head On Festival earlier this year Nick and I talked about all sorts of things including music. I learned that Nick was a fan of an Australian band, the Cosmic Psychos who I’d seen a couple of weeks before. As we wind up our interview Nick tells me the Cosmic Psychos are playing in Antwerp on the weekend and he’s going to their concert. The world is a very small place indeed.
Currently on show at:
Centro Andaluz de la Fotografia, Almeria, Spain until eleven September.
Visit Nick's website for destiny exhibition records. To buy the e-book go to Amazon.
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