"Look, the sea": Complicated teenagers in sailboat

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week is the series “Look, the Sea” (“Blue, see”) by the Belgian photographer Titus Simons about the everyday life of boarding school students for problem children of Ibis, where sailors are brought up from them. Titus told us about the specific atmosphere in such establishments around the world, about how to merge with the environment, and about his plans to finish this project in Russia.

My love for photography was instilled by my father. He is an artist and from childhood he taught me to notice details in the outside world that not everyone can see. I finally realized that I wanted to be a photographer after changing six different schools. As a result, in 2008 I graduated with honors from the University of Charlemagne in Antwerp. In photography, the most important thing for me is to make contact with the subjects. I select them intuitively and especially enjoy exploring isolated communities. I try to achieve maximum involvement in their life - after a while it allows me to take exactly those pictures that I want. My projects are not pure documentary photography, I always try to express my thoughts through pictures. For example, in the "Mount Song" series, which I shot at kung fu school, you will not see photos of people practicing kung fu. The same with "Blue, see". With my photos I try to evoke certain feelings and emotions in people, so that everyone can interpret what they see as they like. Another important part of my work is the selection of photographs: I do not want to show too much to the public, it is important for me that people have room for thought and speculation.

The work on the “Blue, see” series began when I decided to join the sailors on the voyage. I contacted the leadership of the boarding school for problem teenagers Ibis in Ostend, Belgium, after seeing the children of the sea documentary by Belgian director Annabelle Verbeke, who intrigued me wildly. This is an incredible documentary about the students of this school. The topic attracted me by the fact that you literally feel how air rings in this kind of school - adolescents grow up here without parents, are brought up in strictness and are obliged to follow clear rules. This series has become part of a long-term photo project, which I plan to complete by 2015. The series “Look, the Sea” was filmed in 2012 and is the skeleton, the basis of the whole project - although one must, of course, understand that any project always grows and transforms in the process of working on it. The second part - "Mount Song" - I took off in China for two times at kung fu school, where a similar, almost military discipline reigns, and pupils grow in an atmosphere of incredible rigor. So I used the same method there as in "Blue, see". This year I plan to come to Russia to shoot in a nautical school or in a military academy - this will be the third and final part of the project.

In the series "Look, the sea" it was easier for me to contact with the guys, because we speak the same language. I explained to the boys from Ibis what photography is and how I understand it. I was also interested in their opinions, so they were always involved in the process. In China, everything was much more complicated, because there was a cultural and language gulf between us. But after some time you learn to communicate in sign language, plunging into the environment where students live, and doing the same things that they do every day. Of course, at first I couldn’t manage without a translator who helped shake off the entire filming plan with the school principal. But you know, when you are mastered on the spot, you begin to function according to its rules and merge with the environment, at some point the people you are photographing stop paying attention to you. And then just the most successful shots are born.