City of excess
Dubai is known for its consumerism and excess. Nick Hannes, winner of the Zeiss Photography Award 2018, speaks to Andy Westlake about how he captured this
nick Hannes speaks to andy Westlake about how he captured dubai’s consumerism and excess
Ispoke to Nick Hannes on an unseasonably sunny early April morning, the day after he was presented with the Zeiss Photography Award 2018 at the glittering World Photography Awards (WPA) gala. His winning series, ‘Garden of Delight’, was shot in Dubai during five visits across a period of two years, and explores the phenomena of globalisation and market-driven urbanisation. It’s very much a personal project. The soft-spoken Belgian is thoughtful and eloquent, and it’s clear he’s deeply concerned about the effect we’re having on our planet, but also believes in the power of photojournalism to inform. ‘My work is about how we shape our environment,’ he explains, ‘ how we sometimes f*** it up – about the human condition in general. I don’t like to focus on individual stories, but more on phenomena. For example, not the single story of a refugee but the general picture – what is migration about? I look at the world from more of a distance; I often take a step back to see more.’
Hannes’s style is often about showing large views with wideangle lenses. ‘It’s a kind of landscape photography: not the beautiful landscape but a distorted landscape. There’s always a human presence in it and the effect of what people do with their environment. There is a kind of critique in my work, but I hope it’s not moralistic. I think it’s very important not to pretend that I know everything and I have the truth. But this is my opinion and I will share it with you; if you want to understand you can, if you think differently when you look at my pictures, that’s fine as well.’
Choosing Dubai
With his personal interest in showing the effects of capitalism and globalisation, Dubai was an obvious destination. ‘I wanted to work on this phenomena of artificial, market-driven urbanisation and the globalised world. This was the most excessive, most famous example I knew, and also visually interesting because of the spectacular architecture. In the end, the architecture disappeared from my series. It’s there from time
to time, but I decided quite quickly that I don’t need a picture of the Burj Khalifa. Everybody knows what it looks like.’
By losing the iconic architecture, he reveals a city with no apparent local identity. Hannes says, ‘Somebody told me, “It’s very strange when looking at your pictures, you don’t see any local reference to where it is – it could be anywhere.” It is a generic city, with no specific character. It’s a constructed identity.’
Shooting the series was difficult in a highly controlled society, requiring painstaking planning. ‘First is the research, listing all the possibly interesting places – that’s a big job. Then getting in touch with those I can get access to. So I prepare the things I want to shoot, but then you have to see the situation in broad daylight. The setting is there, but you never know what you will find. Just photographing the architecture is not enough for me – I need extra and this relies on coincidences. You need some magic. The guy with the Ferrari in his shopping cart [see left], that’s something that of course you cannot plan – it just happened.’
A tripod makes you Mr Nice
Much of the time, Hannes shoots with his camera on a tripod using a tilt-and-shift lens, setting up his composition and waiting for the people in the frame to complete the shot. ‘I try to pre-visualise. It’s very important where you put your tripod, because you can block space so people have to go around you. It’s very strategic. You can even manipulate people so that they have to pass in front of your camera. I have a lot of different tricks.’
In general, he’s careful not to antagonise his subjects, so that they behave naturally. ‘It’s far less aggressive to shoot from a tripod with a remote control in your hand, and wait for people, as they don’t really notice.
‘At the ice bar [see overleaf] I asked the guy, he said OK, then I set up my tripod. Usually I wait for the situation to become a bit more natural again, because people tend to pose at first, but this guy kept on looking at me, so I thought “OK, this is going to be it,” but in the end it worked out.
‘Whenever there is a bunch of people together like the Emirati boys playing pool [see above], I introduce myself, and I ask if I can photograph them. Then I prepare the lighting and composition. Meanwhile, they continue playing and the situation becomes normal again, and that’s a good moment.
With the unpredictable human element so important to his images, Hannes takes plenty of pictures in each location. ‘I try to stay as long as possible, because you can always make a better photo. When there’s a lot of action and movement, of course you make more pictures, but when it’s a very static situation I make 10 pictures – maximum 20. I never use the motordrive.’
Classical tableaux
Hannes’s images often resemble the posed tableaux in European medieval painting, which he readily acknowledges as being a strong influence on his work. ‘I’m really aware of this, and this is what I want to achieve. I sometimes feel like a spectator watching a play. I’m not a director, because I don’t stage my people – they do what they do. I’m also not on the stage myself, I’m observing from a distance... I’m looking at the world and this is what I see. It’s the Theatrum Mundi idea of classic tableaux paintings, like Brueghel.
‘I like Brueghel a lot, how he builds his scene with all these details, like The Fall of the Rebel Angels. Also, he often painted from a higher point of view so the landscape falls open. If you’re on the ground, everything blocks everything else, so you need to find a good position to build up your photograph, and often that means an elevated point.’
A Nikon user, Hannes prefers to travel light, carrying only the kit he’ll need for each day. ‘I work with Nikon, and usually I take two bodies with me, I have a D850 and a D810 as a backup. I never use more than one flash, sometimes with a transmitter. I have two lenses – the tilt-and-shift and the 24-70mm, because I don’t want to carry too much. Also, I know exactly what I’m going to do each day so I know whether I’m going to need my tripod or not. I have a really heavy Manfrotto, so if I don’t need it, I leave it.’
His technique relies on painstakingly composing and lighting his pictures in-camera. As he explains, ‘ This is how it evolved for me. I had a classic education at the Royal Academy of Arts. The exemplar was Henri CartierBresson, who was very dogmatic, of course. This is how I learned photography – you make your picture in the field, and you don’t crop afterwards. In terms of the technical aspects, I sometimes make prints a metre wide or bigger for my exhibitions, so I need lots of detail. I always use a big depth of field and never shoot over ISO 800. The first thing I check when editing
‘I sometimes feel like a spectator watching a play. I’m not a director, because I don’t stage my people’
is whether it is sharp. If it’s not sharp, [I move on to the] next one.’
For the love of photography
Interestingly, Hannes found that people in Dubai didn’t seem to understand the idea of him working without a commission. ‘Because everything is so money oriented in Dubai, they hardly get the concept of making something because you want to. I’m not saying I’m not earning my money with it, because photography is my profession – I don’t do anything else. But money is not the most important aspect of it.
‘I’m not led by the market. I choose my idea, then I present it to magazines and if they want to publish I’m happy, as long as they pay me correctly. It’s my income; this is how I finance my trips.’
However, he’s found it increasingly difficult to sell a story in a world where people expect to consume their media for free. ‘It’s more and more difficult, especially online. With a lot of online media, you look at a site and see advertisements, but then they say we don’t have any budget but want to have 15 images. These are the ones who ask; some just copy everything from your website and put it on their own. This is my job; I don’t do it for free.’
With his Dubai project complete, Hannes is already setting his sights elsewhere. ‘I’m pretty sure I’m going to continue working on this topic of new cities, urbanisation, generic cities, looking towards Asia. But it’s very early stages.’
Hannes is generous in his advice for anyone who wants to learn how to shoot a similar project. ‘I think the most important thing is to start with the content. Ask yourself what is it I want to tell? What is my story about? Then think about the aesthetics, and the question of how to do it – which camera to use, practical things and so on. But the first step is the content.
‘ Then I would suggest spending as much time as possible on it, although this is often a problem when you have another job and photography is a hobby. You need time and dedication; go for it and don’t stop until you are convinced that you are ready.
‘After my fourth trip to Dubai I was hesitating. Should I go back? I had maybe 80 pictures I could use for a book, but I wasn’t sure. So the only way to find out was to go back. I took some additional pictures, but then I was convinced it was finished. That’s the feeling you have to get to before you stop.’
While Hannes is understandably proud of his Zeiss Photography Award-winning series, he picks out one shot as a highlight. ‘ The pool-playing Emiratis is definitely one of my favourites. There is this strange friction between cultures. Also the composition, everything fits and matches: the white of the clothes and the dark of the bar and the lights – it’s very futuristic.’