“On an ordinary evening of October 26, my grandfather was hit by a car in front of his house. He died the next day in hospital and was buried at Rookwood Cemetery in Lidcombe. Taken on October 29, 1975, a series of 24 photographs documented his funeral and burial. These images took my breath away. They made me weep. My first impression was that they were so desolate, yet, they were beautiful, accomplished and unique in what they represented. Captured in these photographs was my family deep in mourning; expressing their grief physically, in an ever-so public way.”
Apókryphos is a deeply moving study of the ways in which grief and mourning are visualised, experienced and witnessed. Using image and text Cherine Fahd reproduces 24 photographs taken in 1975 of her grandfather’s funeral and burial. Through annotations, footnotes and redacted text she forensically yet intimately guides the reader through the mysteries of the event captured, offering a literary response to the photographs and to the unknown status of the photographer.
Apókryphos continues Fahd’s interest in the book as artwork. This new publication is a unique response to rare photographs of grief and mourning. The publication includes two creative texts as a ‘call and response’ between Cherine Fahd and Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Director of Programs, Carriageworks, Australia.
128 pages, 24 x 18.4 cm, softcover, M.33 (Melbourne).