The graves are nice this time of year

A fresh look at the landscapes of First World War memory in Belgium, by photographer Jimmy Kets

Jimmy Kets looked for the last two years for remains and monuments from 1914-1918 in Flandres and Wallonia, from the Westhoek-region onwards to Limburg.

The contemporary landscapes of First World War memory are portrayed remarkably in this photo book. Kets provides an innovative and dynamic look at the commemoration of the Great War.

With contributions by Joost Vandecasteele and Maarten van Alstein.

'Looking at the photographs of Jimmy Kets we see, through the eye of the photographer, a perfect balance between respect and a total lack of respect. These are images in which the erudite historian and ignorant lay person are forced to look at monuments from the same distance and see how they are in symbiosis with what happened later, how they are elements of a larger overall picture. By not quite zooming in, not looking for grandeur, not taking up the obvious point of view, keeping his colours subdued for a change, exploring the relationship with the passer-by or specifically with the emptiness, Jimmy Kets has managed to perform the most important task of photography. That is: to choose and record a split second in time and thus ensure that an observer has to dwell on it for more than an instant and invent their own narrative. A different story from what we were told.'

— Joost Vandecasteele