Epitaph (1964)

This series, which is a continuation of the journey through Polish homes, was created after another visit in the house of the late couple of Mr and Mrs Biadacz, whom the artist had immortalised 10 years earlier as part of the Sociological Record cycle. These are only a dozen or so photographs, in which instead of living figures, there is a wedding photo set up in various places of the house and farmyard abandoned for eternity by its owners.

...I decided to return to these houses and these people with accurate data. It was cruel, time is inexorable and everything is changing. Not only people die, but the house dies with them. It is not only people who are dying, but also everything around them. Only photography can stop time. Only photography has the ability to overcome the spectre of death and this is my constant struggle against death and passing away.

Zofia Rydet … About my work