Face Death

Zak Dimitrov studied BA (Hons) Photography at Arts University Bournemouth and graduated in July 2015. “Face Death” was his final major project for the course.

Obituaries are everything but hidden from the public eye in Bulgaria.

Quite the opposite, the A4 poorly printed poster with a picture of the dead person and a short poem expressing grief is a commonplace object on trees, outside houses, coffee shops and graveyards. The artist took his curiosity about the process of bereavement people go through and how they choose a picture which will represent their beloved one for years to come as a starting point. The majority are vernacular blurry images with colour aberrations and, in general, not the most flattering ones. Furthermore, the photographs were taken prior to the person’s death without any intention to be used for this purpose.
With time the photographs’ physicality has changed dramatically serving as a metaphor of time passing by. Does a ripped up, faded image mean that their friends and relatives have forgotten about them? Nowadays, especially in Western society, no one thinks about death – it’s avoided, almost feared. It’s one of the very few taboos left in the modern world.

Installation photograph by Felix Speller

Installation photograph by Felix Speller

For more work visit Zak’s website. You can also follow him on Twitter @zdrphoto or contact him via email at hello@zdravkodimitrov.com.