Dirty Jennies grew out of a curiosity about a tradition that had always been close to me, yet remained strangely unfamiliar.
 

Both my parents are from Aalst, but they moved to Dendermonde before I was born, a neighbouring city with a long-standing rivalry with Aalst. Growing up there meant that Aalst Carnival, despite being part of my family’s heritage, was never really part of my own experience.
 

I started photographing the Voil Jeanetten as a way of getting closer to something I had inherited without ever truly knowing. Returning over several years, I became interested not only in the costumes and humour, but in the small moments surrounding the spectacle, gestures, encounters, exhaustion, tenderness and the traces left behind as the streets slowly empty.
 

The work became less about documenting a carnival tradition and more about approaching a heritage from the position of someone who is both connected to it and looking in from the outside.