CPOY

CPOY 74 Domestic Picture Story Bronze: Pre-Mortem

A few months after my grandfather’s death I visited his grave and noticed several fresh graves on the cemetery. My attention was caught by the sticks with tape on them, marking space for a grave in the future. A person was still alive, but there was a place for him in the cemetery already. I started to investigate the matter and documented the tradition of preparing to one’s own death: sometimes people just buy a place on the cemetery, sometimes they put a blank gravestone or they may order a stone with their picture, name, and date of birth on it. There is a superstition about monuments to those who are still alive, that’s why some of the gravestones are hidden under non-transparent black envelopes. They are there and at the same time, they are not, since you can’t see them.

Caption
Slide 3 of 8
April 12, 2019
A grave with space left for one more person
Ihar Hancharuk / DocDocDoc
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