Nick Haymes’s intimate portrait of his family’s life
Chronograph — Over 25 years, the photographer documented his son’s lives as they grew into adults. The resulting photobook is an exploration of the passage of time, as well as the optimism of youth.
Black News 
Chronograph — Over 25 years, the photographer documented his son’s lives as they grew into adults. The resulting photobook is an exploration of the passage of time, as well as the optimism of youth.
Photographer Nick Haymes’s newest book, Chronograph (SPBH Editions), opens on September 11 just moments after the North Tower was hit, the crystal blue sky slowly filling with ominous clouds of smoke. “That was the end of the 21st century before it even began,” he says.
Realising life is short, Haymes and his partner Lina began their life with her young son, Philipp, and soon welcomed Lawrence, a boy of their own, into the family. As a stay at home father, Haymes lived by Dad Code. “I never spoke to them as kids,” he says. “They’re always spoken to as adults, and then we figured it out. I’m not one of those parents who follow them down a slide. If they’re going to go break their nose, they can. You do it once, and then you never do it again.”
His “live and let live” ethos created space for self discovery at every age, the every day moments of his children’s lives evoking the freewheeling spirit of Pee-wee’s Playhouse. “Everyone becomes extended family and ends up in our house at some point so there is always a crossover,” says Haymes, who has introduced his children to muses like Love Bailey and Gabe, who have inspired his previous monographs.
Haymes’s love for the next generation lies at the core of his work. “I photograph youth culture because there’s something intrinsically fantastic about it,” he says. “There is an optimism that at some point you lose. It’s like, oh my God, the world is falling apart, what are we going to do? But at some point you’ll listen to a 20-year-old, and think, maybe you’re right, maybe it can change, and why not? It’s good to hear.”
With Chronograph, Haymes devoted a quarter of a century to photographing his family, allowing the story to unfold at the natural pace of life, while his publisher Bruno Ceschel waited patiently for 15 years until the story was complete. Bookended by death – collective and personal – Haymes reimagines the domestic narrative through the lens of fatherhood, a vantage point unexplored despite the preponderance of men across all disciplines of the photo industry.
For the better part of photography history, the domestic interior has been largely disregarded as a serious space, in no small part due to the fact it has been dominated by women artists such as Sally Mann, Tina Barney, Melonie Bennett, Judith Black, and Susan Kandel. But in more recent years, institutions have finally embraced what visionaries have always known: our first, most profound experience of photography is the family photo album. Here we discover ourselves and loved ones cast against the backdrop of ancestry and lineage cast among snapshots of moments both grand and intimate.
“This isn’t a book on parenthood. It’s more a book about existence, understanding, and appreciating the time you have on the planet and how you spend it.” Haymes says. “If you’re going to have kids, you may as well be active in their lives in some form. I never wanted to censor them. Same as that, I never used a pacifier; I think that’s just wrong because for the rest of your whole life, you’re told to shut up and get in line.”
Chronograph (2026) by Nick Haymes published by SPBH Editions / MACK.
Miss Rosen is a freelance arts and photography writer, follow her on X.
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