Until Death Do Us Part is a photobook by French visual artist, Thomas Sauvin.

Until Death Do Us Part focuses on the unexpected role cigarettes play in Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, it is customary for the bride to light a cigarette for each and every man invited. The bride and the groom are then invited to play some cigarette-smoking games of an unprecedented ingenuousness. This publication pays homage to a tradition in which love and death walk hand in hand.

All photographs have been sourced from the Beijing Silvermine project, an archive of half a million negatives salvaged over the years from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Chinese photography expert Thomas Sauvin traveled the length and breadth of China for over 10 years assembling a vast collection for the English Archive of Modern Conflict project. Interested in vernacular photography, since 2009 he has collected discarded negatives from a recycling plant north of Beijing. His continuously changing Beijing Silvermine archive, which contains over a half-million anonymous snapshots, has featured in many exhibitions, collaborative projects and publications. Lives and works in Paris and Beijing, China.

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COLOPHON

Published by Jiazazhi Press
Language: Bilingual (English, Chinese)
Format: Hardcover with cigarette box, 108 pages
Dimensions: 53 x 83 x 21mm
Edition: Fifth
Publication Date: 2025 (First published in 2015)