Shot through the unblinking eye of a MacBook camera, Isabelle van Manen interrogates the digital world’s hollow promise of connection. What was sold as intimacy has hardened into filter bubbles that isolate rather than unite, leaving us alone together.
The work drifts between screen-bound stasis and moments of physical release: going to the park, stomping through rain, choosing friction over smoothness. These gestures become acts of resistance, pulling the body back into focus and reasserting a relationship with the tangible. Stepping away from the interface, the imagery asks what it means to feel present again, and whether disconnection might be the first step toward regaining ourselves.
The editorial lands in dialogue with Hagu, an app reimagining connection beyond romance. It facilitates friendships, shared walks and unconventional partnerships that privilege presence over performance, and meeting as a way back to the real.
Shot on a MacBook
Creative director @Isabelle_enemy
Talent @jimena_lara
Producer @itaiverhoeckx
T-shirt and lookbook by @hagu.app
