Photographer Nick Haymes has documented his two sons' entire lives in a new book, Chronograph, which spans from the September 11 attacks to the present day. The project began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks made him realize that "life was very short," prompting him and his future wife Lina to start a family together.
An Intimate Family Record
The book traces the journey of Haymes's sons, Philipp and Lawrence, from infancy to young adulthood. It captures both the mundane and significant moments of family life, including broken arms, beloved pets dying, verrucas, messy kitchens, and Lina cleaning out an ear with a cotton bud, alongside birthday parties and rites of passage.
"Because we lived in this tiny, 800 sq ft apartment in Manhattan, you don't miss a thing, all the ups and downs, all the mood swings," says Haymes. "There was no door slamming, because there was nowhere to go!"
Capturing Rebellion and Growth
The photographs include the boys at their least flattering moments, with Haymes admitting there was a running joke where Lawrence would say: "You're the only parent that would photograph me when I'm crying rather than deal with the issue straight away." Haymes insists the camera's constant presence seemed to work, and that his sons approved of the documentation.
As Philipp and Lawrence reached their teens, they developed an ingenious method of rebellion. Instead of sulking or turning away from the camera, they smiled and put their thumbs up, knowing their father wanted anything but a posed family portrait. "That was basically their way of telling me to clear out of their lives," Haymes says.
From Youth to Adulthood
Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Haymes dropped out of art school and struggled in his 20s before finding work in a photo studio and eventually assisting Jürgen Teller. In 1999, he moved to New York with two cameras, where he met Lina, a Jewish refugee who had moved to the US from Ukraine as a teenager. She gave him a commission that allowed him to get a visa and stay.
Haymes's own difficult transition from youth to adulthood has drawn him to similar subjects. His previous projects include Between Dog and Wolf, documenting young skateboarders on road trips across California and Oklahoma, and Gabe TM, which chronicled teenage actor Gabe Nevins's homelessness and addiction after starring in Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park. His 2024 book Dancing on the Fault Line followed teenager Love Bailey and her extended queer family.
A Complete Circle
The book's closing passages show Lina's parents, Nadia and Mikhail, in hospital together as their conditions deteriorated. Haymes converted his home art gallery into a hospice during two grueling years of bringing them to dialysis daily. Although the couple had divorced by that point and died a year apart, they were buried together in Los Angeles.
Haymes says he had been asked to make a family photography book for 15 years, but only realized the project was complete when the grandparents died. "The book starts with death and ends with death," he says. "It's gone full circle."
The book concludes with Philipp and Lawrence standing by the graveside with the urn. "For them to be able to communicate those emotions and to speak at a service, for me that felt like, 'OK, they're on their own now. They've become men,'" Haymes says. "Having said that," he adds, "they're still on my Uber account."
Chronograph by Nick Haymes is published by Mack, £55.
