This article originally appeared on VICE Belgium.
Like it or not, that period of your life where you can go to bed wasted at 6AM without suffering any consequences is shorter than you think. Enjoy those brief years while you can, because once they’re gone, all you have left are a bunch of blurry pictures.
Louise Lorentz, a 24-year-old photographer from Liège in Belgium, took pictures of her mates passed out after drinking and made them into a collection. While not a completely original concept, her series Sleeping Beauties offers unpretentious and sincere portraits of a precious and fleeting era.
VICE: Hi, Louise. How did you start this project?
Louise Lorentz: I used to throw a lot of parties and would instinctively take photos of my friends after they’d passed out, just because it made me laugh. They even managed to look cute, the bastards! I collected lots of these shots and realised that they weren't bad, so I decided to make a series out of them. It was quite fun to keep those moments alive.
What do your friends think of these pictures?
Some of them find them funny, others don't really like to see themselves like that. Most just wonder how they got there and what state they were in. What I like the most are the anecdotes that go with the pictures and what we remember.
What’s the weirdest thing you remember?
It’s impossible to choose! But on the topic of sleep, four or five years ago we went to FCKNYE Festival in Molenbeek [a neighbourhood in Brussels] and lost one of our friends at some point. He still doesn't know what happened, but he woke up the next morning locked in one of the cabins where they sold the drink tickets.
Do you have a favourite photo from the series?
That’s not easy. I’d say probably the one with the four guys practically asleep on top of each other on inflatable mattresses. It's crazy how falling asleep drunk can change your notion of personal comfort. It’s the magic of the moment – who will fall asleep? Where? In what position? With whom?
What was your biggest challenge?
That I was also drunk! It was hard to shoot in focus.
Party pictures often aren’t quite as touching as yours are.
We usually take pictures of our friends on nights out when they’re doing something funny, idiotic or dangerous – I have a lot of those, too. But what’s interesting is the contrast between these moments of madness and the rest. These pictures are quite calm. In fact, it’s often the people who give it their all early in the evening and run out of steam who are in my shots.
Scroll down to see more pictures from the series.
