Nissen has become used to people assuming, as a result of this series, that he himself is gay. “I’m not,” he says, “but I can relate to desire, and I can relate to love.”

That willingness to connect led to one of the most iconic images of the last few years; an image which won the World Press Photo of the Year award in 2014. Nissen was in a bar with Jon, 21, and Alex, 25, friends of Pavel’s, and an openly gay couple. The three drank together and talked.

The single thing Nissen values in a photograph is closeness. Before he stepped on a land-mine, war photographer Robert Capa was quoted as saying: “If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough.”

“I always felt that was a cliché, macho comment from Capo,” Nissen says. “But maybe I wasn’t fair to him. Maybe we need to be emotionally close to our photographs. I realised, if I am not moved, touched, happy or angry when I take a picture, then it does not mean very much to me.”

So, in that bar with Jon and Alex, as Nissen told them what he wanted from his photography, so they made their way to Jon and Alex’s flat. As the couple lay on their bed together, started to take off their clothes, to kiss and hold each other, so Nissen photographed. “Maybe it was because of the beer, but I just went with my instinct,” Nissen says. “I can’t actually remember taking the picture."