Not many family photo albums open with images of the twin towers on fire. But for Nick Haymes, it made perfect sense. \u201cWhen 9\/11 happened,\u201d he says, \u201cI realised life was very short.\u201d At the time, he was living in New York, trying to forge a career, while his friend, colleague and future wife Lina was dealing with the fallout of her previous marriage. \u201cIt made us realise we should probably get together and have a family. It was this huge historical event, but on a very micro level, it also shaped my relationship with my wife and children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chronograph is a photography book that runs from those terrorist attacks to the present day, tracing the journey of Haymes\u2019s two sons, Philipp and Lawrence, as they grow from drooling babies into young men. We are given a ringside seat as arms get broken, beloved pets die and hairs start sprouting from armpits. The mundane side of life \u2013 verrucas, messy kitchens, Lina cleaning out an ear with a cotton bud \u2013 is captured in the same way as birthday parties and rites of passage.<\/p>\n
double quotation markLawrence would joke: \u2018You photograph me when I\u2019m crying rather than dealing with it\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause we lived in this tiny, 800 sq ft apartment in Manhattan, you don\u2019t miss a thing, all the ups and downs, all the mood swings,\u201d says Haymes. \u201cThere was no door slamming, because there was nowhere to go!\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, we are not spared from seeing the children at their least flattering: \u201cWe used to have a running joke where Lawrence would say: \u2018You\u2019re the only parent that would photograph me when I\u2019m crying rather than deal with the issue straight away,\u2019\u201d admits Haymes, \u201cbut I like to think I was attentive. It was a funny balance because the camera was always around, but it seemed to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are also multiple shots of the boys naked \u2013 not just running around the house as young children but as they transition into adulthood too. I suspect most teenagers would not be cool with this, but Haymes insists he had their approval. \u201cThey don\u2019t have an issue,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to have some very nice photographers in my household at various times, so they\u2019re aware of the creative process.\u201d He shrugs: \u201cThere are bigger themes in the book than child nudity. That was just a part of our daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides, when Philipp and Lawrence reach their teens \u2013 all bleached hair, tattoos and stubble \u2013 they work out an ingenious method of rebellion. Instead of sulking or turning away from the camera, Haymes says his kids smiled and put their thumbs up, knowing that the last thing their dad wanted was a posed family portrait. \u201cThat was basically their way of telling me to clear out of their lives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Haymes hoped to study art but ended up dropping out. \u201cI took way too many drugs in my 20s and had a bit of a breakdown,\u201d he says. After couch-surfing in London for a bit, he found work in a photo studio, eventually assisting J\u00fcrgen Teller. In 1999, he packed two cameras into a bag and decided to try his luck in New York. It was here he met Lina, a Jewish refugee who, as a teenager, had moved to the US with her parents from Ukraine \u2013 then part of the Soviet Union. She was working on a magazine and gave him a commission that allowed him to get a visa and stay.<\/p>\n
Haymes\u2019s own difficult transition from youth to adulthood is perhaps what draws him to his subjects. Between Dog and Wolf captured his road trips across California and Oklahoma with a group of young skateboarders. Follow-up Gabe TM unfurled over many years hanging out with Gabe Nevins, the teenage star of Gus Van Sant\u2019s Paranoid Park. Unexpectedly, Haymes found himself chronicling Nevins\u2019s homelessness and addiction in the wake of making the movie. Dancing on the Fault Line, published in 2024, was another mammoth excursion, following teenager Love Bailey and her extended queer family right up to her decision to transition in her 30s.<\/p>\n
Haymes is still in touch with his previous subjects: he shot Bailey\u2019s wedding; Gabe is living a \u201cnormal life\u201d now in Oregon; the skaters have children of their own. Haymes doesn\u2019t intend to foster such deep relationships with his subjects. \u201cI always think, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ll just do a nice quick shoot.\u2019 But then I get attached to everybody, they become part of my life. You can become a father figure to them, or a therapist maybe. That\u2019s part of it, and that\u2019s part of the educational process for me, just to be with people and understand them.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was during Covid that Haymes found the time to go through all his family negatives and work out what to do with them. \u201cIt moved me pretty heavily,\u201d he says. \u201cI also had to try to be as impartial as I could because I didn\u2019t want it to be saccharine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did he know, as he took them, that the photos of his children would end up in a published book? \u201cI suppose, as a photographer, yes. But I really did it for personal memory, and as a little self-analysis. To think about how I was as a parent. Also, I shoot on film and at the time, in the early 2000s, digital photography had kicked in so I was finding myself more and more unemployable. I thought, \u2018OK, I am becoming a house husband.\u2019 But I wanted to be a photographer still, so the family life around me is what I photographed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides Lina and the boys, the other key figures in the book are Lina\u2019s parents Nadia and Mikhail. \u201cThey were big characters,\u201d says Haymes. \u201cI had to learn how to become a little more emotional and a little more warm and compassionate.\u201d<\/p>\n