‘I didn’t miss a thing’: How Nick Haymes photographed his sons’ entire lives from verrucas to homemade hamster coffin
Photographer Nick Haymes has produced a new photobook, Chronograph, documenting the entire childhoods of his two sons, Philipp and Lawrence, from infancy into adulthood. The project began around the time of the 9/11 attacks, which prompted Haymes and his future wife Lina to settle down and start a family, and it stands out for its unflinching, unposed approach, capturing everyday moments such as illnesses, arguments and awkward developmental stages alongside more conventional milestones.
Living in a small 800 sq ft Manhattan flat meant Haymes rarely missed a moment, photographing his sons crying, naked, and going through the physical changes of puberty, all with their consent. As teenagers, the boys developed their own way of resisting the constant photography, grinning and giving thumbs up to avoid a staged family portrait. Haymes, who trained under Jürgen Teller after moving to New York in 1999, has built a career chronicling the transition from youth to adulthood in previous projects including Between Dog and Wolf, Gabe TM and Dancing on the Fault Line.
- Nick Haymes's book Chronograph documents his sons' whole lives in photos.
- Project began around 9/11 and includes unposed, everyday moments.
- Sons consented to nudity and candid shots, later joking with thumbs-up poses.
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Nick Haymes is a photographer who moved to New York in 1999 and trained under fellow photographer Jürgen Teller. Around the time of the 9/11 attacks, he and his future wife, Lina, decided to settle down and start a family, and they went on to have two sons, Philipp and Lawrence.
From then on, Haymes photographed his sons continuously as they grew up, living in a small flat in Manhattan where little of daily life went unrecorded. Rather than posed portraits, the images show ordinary and sometimes difficult moments, including illness, arguments and the physical changes of adolescence, all taken with the boys' agreement.
This body of work has now been published as a photobook called Chronograph, spanning the boys' entire childhoods into adulthood. It follows Haymes's earlier photographic projects, including Between Dog and Wolf, Gabe TM and Dancing on the Fault Line, which similarly explored the passage from youth to adulthood.