Yannik Willing, Before Tomorrow

In 2010 I spent a month in Sri Lanka, making pictures and from them a small bookwork. Recently I discovered online a German photographer, Yannik Willing, who'd also been to Sri Lanka and he too had made a bookwork. I contacted Yannik and we arranged to make a swap. His work, Before Tomorrow arrived this morning.

Unlike my A5 sized work, Yannik has produced a tabloid sized edition with 300 copies over 60 pages and 31 photographs. There are a number of strong portraits, landscapes and photographs of incidental details. This is an accomplished, perceptive work made with care, integrity and from the heart. Superbly designed and sequenced too.

Yannick says this about the work: In my project, I am concerned with the imminent radical changes of tourist regions in Sri Lanka after the end of the civil war in 2009 that had lasted almost thirty years.
In 2011, more than 750.000 tourists visited Sri Lanka -never before had so many tourists visited the country in one year. The government is aiming to achieve a number of 2.6 million tourists in the year of 2016 – in a few years, the tourist regions will change drastically.
It struck me in these regions that the atmosphere was calm – but at the same time there was a sense of tenseness in the air. It was only on taking a closer look that the signs of imminent, unavoidable changes became apparent. Investors from Sri Lanka and abroad had already secured many land areas.
It seemed to me that the barriers to structural change had just been opened. However, the consequences of that rapid change are still not clear, even today.

You can see more on the Yannik Willing website and order a copy of Before Tomorrow,  HERE.  Now some images: