Nick Hannes

Nick Hannes (Belgium, 1974) studied

photography at the Royal Academy of Fine

Arts in Ghent, where he now teaches documentary

photography. He is also a freelance

photographer for various media, such as

Knack and MO* magazines and newspapers

de Volkskrant and De Morgen. He is

affiliated to the photo agencies Reporters,

Hollandse Hoogte and Cosmos.

On several occasions Hannes has gone

abroad to document the political and social

situation in troubled countries. His

Forbidden People (1997) about the Kurds,

Waste Land (1998) about Bosnia and The

Porters of Mount Kilimanjaro (2006) about

the Sherpas of Kilimanjaro are examples

of this.

For Red Journey (2009) Hannes spent a year

visiting the fifteen former Soviet republics.

He shows us countries that seem to

have withdrawn themselves from the eyes

of the world. Now that the all-controlling

Communist empire has fallen, each of

them has to try to rediscover its own identity.

In aspects such as politics and power

structures there are striking mutual differences

between these countries, but there

are also similarities. Almost everywhere

extremely rich small communities stand

out in sharp contrast against the vast numbers

of people living in poverty. While ever

more money is flowing to the cities, the

countryside is falling increasingly far behind.

Hannes gives us a surreal, absurdist

peek inside countries in which the (tragi)

comic is never far away. Red Journey earned

Hannes the Nikon Press Photo Award

2009.