celeste

 

I'm not obsessed with death and I I'm not afraid of it either. In the 48 years that I have been alive, I have never seen a dead person or witnessed an interment, but not because I have avoided the opportunity - that's simply the way it's been. When I die, I would like to be wrapped in a biodegradable sheet and planted in the ground wherever death catches up with me. So, why this project about cemeteries?

 

When I was little I liked reading the obituaries in the newspapers that my family bought. This was not a morbid entertainment. I was interested in reading about people who were younger than I and who had already died, because it made me feel very lucky that I was still living.

 

I guess this same impulse has led me as an adult to visit cemeteries whenever I have bumped into one in my travels around the world. At some point in these leisurely strolls, I also started taking photos, although I'm not really sure why.

 

This year, 2014, I'm going to embark on a 3-month-long voyage that will take me to 16 different countries in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. I was looking for a project in which I could easily document common elements in as many of those countries as possible. And what could be more common than the need to dispose of the bodies of those who die and to try to make some sense of their lives?