military images have become part of our everyday visual culture, across newspapers and social media. in belgium, a large-scale recruitment campaign encourages young people to spend a paid period in the army. hannes is drawn to this world, apparently remote yet growing closer to our lives, despite this proximity it remains largely inaccessible: who are these young people? what happens beyond the barbed wire? what room is left for subjectivity within a system that structures bodies and behaviours?
the project combines photographs taken by hannes with images made by recruits themselves, who carried disposable cameras to document their daily lives from within, the project depicts the normallness in the life of new recruits combined with the very strict and curated imagery of the army. with interest in anthropology, the photographer uses the disposable cameras as a key to see this world that is so removed from him.