Hannes Jung traveled to Lithuania to explore a country marked by a high rate of suicide. Below, the 32-year-old photographer writes about his project, “How is Life?”:
Hannes Jung How is life? Death follows life. Always. A fact that unites all and everyone of us. As a young person I expect too die when I’m old, maybe when I’m sick, but definitely not …
My story “How is Life?” is not just about photography. I worked together with the protagonists and asked them to write down their personal story. These statements (see the captions) are an essential part of this project.
I photograph life not death because death cannot be seen. Maybe you can’t take pictures of the wind. But you could try to catch the consequences of the wind, bending trees and rolling waves.
Lithuania has suicide rates three times higher than the rest of Europe—especially among men living in the countryside. Photographer Hannes Jung set out to discover why.
When he learned that Lithuania’s suicide rates are almost three times higher than the rest of Europe—especially among adult men living in Lithuania‘s countryside—31 year-old German photographer Hannes Jung was made curious to find out more about the reasons of such numbers. After consulting a range of experts on the subject, he discovered that the general causes of this phenomenon may date back to the history of the country’s post Second World War years; but he also realized that no wide assumptions can be made
