photoreportage

Christmas in France

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I spent Christmas this year with my wife’s family in the south of France. My mother-in-law, who is 93, had asked me some time ago to create an album of photographs of the family for her, so I documented the week we spent together quite extensively. Now that the album is edited, printed and delivered, I thought I’d share some of the photographs here as well.

All the images were shot in black and white with a Leica Q2 Monochrom.

I hope you had a wonderful end-of-year break, too.

LOCKDOWN-Europe

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Belgium was officially locked down on 18 March. We went indoors and stayed there. We stopped going to work. We stopped going to school. When we had to, we hurried out to the shops, but as soon as we could we hurried back home again. Brussels’ 1.3 million inhabitants were confined, and the additional 350,000 who normally commute into the city each day were asked to stay where they were.

Brussels was transformed. Immediately we noticed how quiet it was, and how clear the air was. And once we’d got over our initial panic, we established new routines. Those who could worked from home in casual clothes. We dug out old sets of Monopoly and long-forgotten jigsaw puzzles. We kept in touch with friends and lovers via Instagram and TikTok. We learned how to use Zoom and Jitsi, and got in touch with people we hadn’t seen in decades. We washed our windows.

And we started to inhabit our streets in a new way. We greeted neighbours and even total strangers. Bonjour jeune homme. Bonjour madame. Goedemorgen meneer. Can I help you? After all, we were all living through something remarkable, strange and difficult. We were being asked to stay inside, but when we did venture out we tended to linger – at a safe distance, of course – to ask one another’s news and exchange views on the government’s handling of the crisis. Children rode their scooters down the middle of the street. The cars had gone!

On 21 April, I was approached by a German photographer, Oliver Heinl, inviting me to take part in a Europe-wide project to document the Covid-19 lockdown. Oliver’s idea is to collaborate with one photographer in each of Europe’s 47 capital cities. He gave us ‘carte blanche’ to approach the project in any way we wanted. Each will submit six images to create a record of the European lockdown. He hopes to mount a travelling exhbition and (if he can attract funding) a publication.

All my planned jobs had been cancelled as soon as the lockdown began and I’d received no enquiries since then. So I was thrilled to be working on a real project again. I ventured out for a series of short walkabouts in my own neighbourhood of Ixelles, and I also shot people passing in my street from my front window. I explained the project to almost everybody I photographed and they loved the idea. I’ve submitted my contributions and the first photographs are already online. You can check them out on the LOCKDOWN Europe website as the project progresses.

Beauty treatment

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It was a bright early spring morning when I drove out from Brussels to visit Skin Esthetiek, a busy beauty clinic in Tervuren. The owner, Katrien, had booked me to shoot photos for her website and social media accounts.

Katrien told me that she had asked a friend to model for the shoot. While we waited for Indra she showed me around and explained in a bit more detail what she wanted. Her idea was to tell the complete story of a client’s visit to the clinic – from the welcome and the diagnostic consultation, through a full facial treatment to the sale of after-care products. I was pleased that the treatment room had a large window that would allow me to balance my Rotolight LED/flash unit against some natural light.

When Indra arrived we got started immediately. She told me that she had never modelled before and was not sure what to do. I assured her that she looked great. If I needed her to do something special I would ask, but otherwise she could just relax and enjoy Katrien’s treatment. I think she may have fallen asleep at one point.

For the treatment itself I set my lighting to a soft, warm tone, and shot at f4.0 and 1/180 at ISO 400. For the central element of the facial Katrien painted Indra’s face with a bright blue gel and then gently blew steam onto it. Gradually, the gel bubbled into a fine foam, and I got some fabulous extreme close-ups.

It was an intimate moment, and I feel lucky to have shared it with the two friends. I’m happy to see that Katrien has already used some of my photos on her website and her Instagram account, and I hope they help to bring her a lot of new business.