Katherine LonglyHernie & Plume

Belgian photographer Katherine Longly met Blieke, Nicole and their little dog “Plume” on a December evening a few days before Christmas. While she was taking pictures of illuminated caravans at a campsite on the outskirts of Brussels, a man came out of her cabin and asked her what she was doing there. She apologised, but he followed her: “Come home and have a beer with us instead.” They became friends. They then invited her to various wacky parties and told her their amazing story. With this book, Longly plays with the prejudices we all tend to have, even if we try to avoid them. The photographer constructs her story calmly but with determination, and then reveals the true story of the protagonist. As a reader, we are misled and thus confronted with our own short-sightedness. Longly does this with extremely sincere and entertaining images of this party couple, which makes for a pleasant book as well as a wise lesson. A story about social mobility, stereotypes, ageing and, above all, love.