“I always wanted to be happy so I tried to make everyone around me happy, in expectation they would feel the same way about me. “

What makes us happy? What is being happy?

The photographer and author of the photo book "four Seasons of Happiness" dealt with these questions. Jennifer is the eldest child of an immigrant family from Poland and was born in Bonn in 1991. While she taught herself German in kindergarten, she still speaks Polish at home and is also raised Polish Catholic.

At the age of 28, the photographer, who was living in East Westphalia at that time, married due to the social pressure she felt and divorced after only one year of marriage. Due to her roots and her upbringing, this decision brings her not only emotional, but also cultural and social questions. In search of her new self , her path led her to the happiest country in the world, Finland.* The 30-year-old photographer lived and worked here for a year and asked the Finns about their happiness. At the same time, she captured her own thoughts and development through a diary and self-portraits. With her playful view of the world, she combines these two narrative strands, which at the same time reflect her year in Finland, in this book. The book illustrates both figuratively and textually by means of quotations and portraits, the most diverse perspectives of different people whom she was able to get to know in Finland. At the same time, we get a little insight into the emotional world of a formless figure who is on the way to redefining herself and her happiness.

“Just in case I don´t wake up tomorrow, I want to be happy today.”

Jennifer Janowski

*Finland was named the happiest country in the world by the world happiness report for the fifth time in a row in 2022.

Documentary "Wild Wild East" showing April 19 at Theatre N in Wilmington, DE

Signing and meeting with the authors on April 18, 6pm at Huxley and Hiro Booksellers at 419 N. Market St in Wilmington.