Until Death Do Us Part (2015) is a conceptual photobook by French collector and editor Thomas Sauvin, published by Jiazazhi Press. It is one of the most recognizable publications to emerge from Sauvin's monumental Beijing Silvermine project, an archive of over half a million salvaged 35mm negatives recovered from a recycling plant on the outskirts of Beijing.
The book documents a highly specific, quirky tradition at Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, the bride must light a cigarette for every male guest in attendance. The sequence progresses to show the bride and groom participating in increasingly inventive and bizarre cigarette-smoking games orchestrated by their guests.
By isolating these candid, vernacular snapshots, Sauvin creates a visual narrative that juxtaposes the celebratory atmosphere of matrimony with the toxic reality of chain-smoking, paying homage to a tradition where "love and death walk hand in hand".
Until Death Do Us Part (2015) is a conceptual photobook by French collector and editor Thomas Sauvin, published by Jiazazhi Press. It is one of the most recognizable publications to emerge from Sauvin's monumental Beijing Silvermine project, an archive of over half a million salvaged 35mm negatives recovered from a recycling plant on the outskirts of Beijing.
The book documents a highly specific, quirky tradition at Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, the bride must light a cigarette for every male guest in attendance. The sequence progresses to show the bride and groom participating in increasingly inventive and bizarre cigarette-smoking games orchestrated by their guests.
By isolating these candid, vernacular snapshots, Sauvin creates a visual narrative that juxtaposes the celebratory atmosphere of matrimony with the toxic reality of chain-smoking, paying homage to a tradition where "love and death walk hand in hand".