Until Death Do Us Part
Thomas Sauvin
Jiazazhi Press
108 pages
53 x 83 x 21mm
Hardcover, with a real cigarette box
2015
Until Death Do Us Part focuses on the unexpected role cigarettes play in Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, it is customary for the bride to light a cigarette for each and every man invited. The bride and the groom are then invited to play some cigarette-smoking games o f an unprecedented ingenuousness. This publication pays homage to a tradition in which love and death walk hand in hand.
These photos come from the Beijing Silvermine project, an archive of half a million negatives salvaged over the years from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing.
Jiazazhi, is a institute on photo art publishing, devoting to exploring the possibilities of photo work presentation off the wall. Our practices include blogzine, publishing project, distributing project, quarterly magazine (under working).
Thomas Sauvin is a French photography collector and editor who lives in Beijing. Since 2006 he exclusively works as a consultant for the UK-based Archive of Modern Conflict,an independent archive and publisher, for whom he collects Chinese works, from contemporary photography to period publications to anonymous photography. Sauvin has had exhibitions of his work, and published through Archive of Modern Conflict.
Video: Until Death Do Us Part by Thomas Sauvin on Vimeo.
