"All these people, facing a wall, a bush, a landscape, nothing—closed perspective—and the last dance, and then landscapes, and then dead animals. Is this how I plot my grief? Nothing, up front, about my father, to my father. This photo is part of a series I made after my father's death in 2009. Like a posthumous letter, a crossing of the grieving." © Clara Chichin / Hans Lucas
Turkey, August 2015. "The city is under curfew and surrounded by the Turkish Special Forces. That evening I was in my hotel room overlooking the city center’s main street, where all confrontations between young Kurd fighters and the army begin. Like every night, fireworks thunder and illuminate the empty streets, warning of the clashes to come. I hesitated going outside (I wasn't feeling it), so I decided to observe the scene from my balcony." © Matthieu Rosier / Hans Lucas
"Rare are the moments when emotions take over in the community of Bhutanese refugees who have settled in Quebec over the past five years. I followed them from the refugee camps (where they spent 30 years waiting) all the way through their integration in my city, Quebec. But here, as this hajura buvā (the Nepali word for grandfather) recollects memories from the past, his eyes well up with tears." © Renaud Philippe / Hans Lucas
A Sunday on Ciqikou Beach, China, 2013. "Each spring, the water level of the Jialing River goes down for a few weeks and reveals a beach in the middle of Chongqing, a Chinese metropolis with 10 million inhabitants. Families cook outside and fly kites on Sundays. During each of my trips to Chongqing, I find spectacular places, full of unique stories, that describe the China of today. A country laden with concrete and pollution and magic." © Julien Hazemann / Hans Lucas
"Here's an odd thing—I never found this village again. In general, I always go back a second time, once my negatives are developed. Here, though, a blind spot. But I can see the moment in my mind: it was during a heavy sequence of other moments, both similar and different. It thus intertwines hypnosis and earth, fight and wind, rock and time... the days and sojourns one after the other. I am still there, on the road, alone, meandering along the great open Spanish spaces, adventurous, a quest for myself." © Romann Ramshorn / Hans Lucas
"There are colors that are no more / Whiffs of corrupted lands /
Battles of grey matters /
Like a healing scar. /
Language is not required /
To understand the message /
Freedom of pure beauty /
It's also the beast that lures /
Caressing error and truth /
And not forget that tomorrow was only yesterday" © Denis Meyer / Hans Lucas
"Frozen /
A small bill /
no complaint escapes /
she does not say a word /
her expression is frozen.
Her voice is a weapon /
that can be bought for one dollar." © Benjamin Girette / Hans Lucas
"On my way to Norilsk, a Siberian mining town located 400km north of the Arctic Circle. Its mines and steel factories were built by Stalin's gulag prisoners. 60% of the population are involved in industrial processes today. Norilsk is the world's 7th most polluted city. The average temperature is -10°C; it can reach -55°C in winter. For two months each year, the city is swallowed by the darkness of the Arctic night. These factors make the living conditions in Norilsk quite unique..." © Elena Chernyshova / Hans Lucas
"This neck reminds me of a tree trunk with roots. 'To be alive is to be ready. Ready for what might happen, in the urban jungle and of the day. With continuous and subconsciously adjusted foresight, the normal state is far from being at rest, but under tension in anticipation of the efforts required...A pressure so usual and invisible that we don't know how to tone it down. The normal state is a state of preparation, disposition towards the abysses.'" From "Connaissance par les gouffres" by Henry Michaux © Clémence Losfeld / Hans Lucas
"A yakuza lost in Clichy sous Bois? An encounter above all furtive in a parking lot in the Chêne Pointu neighborhood—but also informative of the sinuous and singular paths chosen by the young people living on these council estates. Jeremy left his neighborhood 10 years ago, when he was in his twenties. Always attracted to Japan, he decided to go there. A decade later, he is back. While there, he dove heart and soul in the country of the rising sun. So much so that he spent time with a few members of the notorious Japanese mafia. As a result, he says, he came back with this large tattoo." Text by Sébastien Deslandes © Hervé Lequeux / Hans Lucas
Image from the series "Sub limis:" obscure etymology; possibly from sub-limen, sublimen: "sloping up to the lintel." © Dorothée Smith / Hans Lucas
Looking for Quebec, lost in a foggy day. "During an expedition, the fog and sleet made progress more and more difficult as the weather worsened. As the reference marks become blurry, doubt surfaced, and we began to draw on our resources. We quickly discovered their limits, and yet we needed to go beyond them. Every time I see this image, that's what I'm reminded of." © Luc Manago / Hans Lucas
