Family stories

Not Quite as Planned

12.11.2026

A documentary family story from Düsseldorf

Some days stay with you. Not necessarily because everything went to plan, but precisely because it didn’t.

When I met the family the evening before, their younger daughter became ill. A rough night with very little sleep followed. By the next morning she was feeling a little better, but she still wasn’t quite herself. And her mother was clearly feeling the effects of the night too.

Even so, family life carried on. There was playing, cuddling, laughter and time simply spent together. Later, we even managed to get out to the Rhine.

Then the family managed to lock themselves out as well. Some of the photographs in this story were taken while we waited in the stairwell. Finally, at dinner, their older daughter lost a tooth.

When I reminded the mother of that day years later, she immediately remembered just how incredibly tired she had been.

And that’s exactly what I like about these photographs. They bring back a day this family actually lived through, rather than a perfect one.

A mother and two children among blankets in bed.
A child wraps their arms around their mother’s head as she bends forward in the bedroom.
A child plays with a tin and paper at the kitchen table.
A child holds a towel in front of their face in a green-tiled bathroom.
The mother holds a cup to the father’s mouth at breakfast, with a child sitting beside them.
A child sits on a swing in the hallway. Black-and-white photograph.
The mother carries a large pile of laundry through the kitchen, with a child walking beside her.
A child moves through the room under a duvet cover while the mother sorts laundry.
A child pokes their head through a duvet cover while playing.
A father and child play with a small wooden horse on the floor.
A child brushes their teeth while the father stands at the bathroom sink in the background.
The father prepares something in a bowl in the kitchen.
The family stands with bags and blankets in a courtyard filled with plants.
A child sits on a swing with the father standing in front, and the Rhine in the background.
The family sits and lies close together on the banks of the Rhine.
A child kisses the father under a tree.
The mother sits laughing with a child in the stairwell, with children’s legs dangling in the foreground.
Two children stand on a chest of drawers in the warm light of a lamp.
Parents and children lie together in bed looking at a smartphone.

12.11.2026