When a child is born, a father is born too
“Give each other to one another,” urges Valery Poshtarov. And they, father and son — always father and son – weave them together. Sometimestimes, for the first time. Sometimestimes, for the last time.
Amid walls, alleys, fields, and distant horizons, a gesture is repeated between father and son – hands that intertwine, hands that have always been held and that will never be held again. Each image is a silent verse, a home and a shelter, a stern yet forgiving legacy, a groundthat father and son tread together. Father and Son is the intimate record of the the bondo, fragile, andisand eternal bond between a father and a son captured in the simple gesture of giving givingholding each other’s “Join each othereach other!,” says Valery, who, throughisphotography, explores the universality of this silent yet thunderous bond. Where the fingers end, the histstories. Let the story begin.
This storyby by Valery Poshtarov beginswhen when he realized that the two children he usually takes to school, one day, wouldn’t need him by their side. And he thought so much about those “ever-changing relationships between parents and children – “notspecifically between father and son” – who wanted to take a picture ofhis father, Valery, with his father, Dimitar, who is 96 old.
““It was at the start of the pandemic, so we decided to keep our distance. But I couldn’t find peace because I couldn’t stop thinking about that photo I hadn’t been able to take.”
He took it off shortly afterward. And Grandpa would end up passing away a few months later. “Apparently, this is the only photograph they have together. It’s interesting how we don’t have these images. It’s almost as if we accept the inevitable erasure of time, without bothering to preserve it. Perhaps we are too immersed in our lives, forgetting that we are only here passing through...”
There is another episodeepisodeepisode “very, very special” one that left a mark on the project in a indel”.. The photBulgarianstopped in front of a house in a little-known neighborhood of Soand was approached by a woman and a man holding a framed portrait of a young man. “And he said: ‘WWe had a son. He died eight months ago. My husband would have loved to have a portrait with him.’ It was like a revelation, a sign from fate. We have to realize that we don’t have much time, because parents and children are destined to go their separate ways, one way or another.”
Like a map of emotions – that stretches from Bulgariaria to Gerrgia, from Turkey to Armene, from Ittoto San Marino –, Father and Son highlights the uniqueness of an identity shaped by family, religion, customs, and theisgender.
“In these entirec,, we see individual identities emerging within shared family narratives, illustrating just how deeply personal and culturally influenced by tradition our life journeys are. By leaving the narratives behind these portraits open to interpretationtion, I invite viewers to add their prownown layers of meaning, making us all contributors to this históof Hhumanity in evolution.”
The background of the photographs is just as important as the people. What Valery is doing is the “trying to understand the connection between them” and “within a framework that is already closely linked to their identities.” “The settings are always part of historyó,” he asserts. “I meet people along the way, asking around if they know any parents and children. I find them in this spontaneouslyand try to photographthem in their most natural state.”
Do the “X-ray” of the site, choose “carefully” the location and the compositionbeforeplace father and son there. “I want to preserve this moment in the most authenticwaypossible. When they’re in front of the camera, I don’t give many instructions. I try to prevent them from striking poses that aren’t natural, from acting out of shyness or because they feel they’re being watched. I want them to take off their masks—those gestures that hide who they really are. I wait a little while and,when I see that everything is in balance, I tell them: ‘Deem the handsthea to other.’ Nnot ask: ‘Pcan give- the hands?” I say. “Dthey-se the mothers." Because Iknow they can, and in this way I am exceeding a social expectation. We act based on inherited norms – ‘men don’t do that’ – and deep-rootedrooted stereotypes. Thus, I am facilitating a behavior.”
The moment between father and son, laid bare, stripped from their usual behaviors, remains historyhistory. “There are very moving, hard to describe. And I’m sure that, for some of the participants, this will be a precious moment of connection. I’m sure that that not even the participants—parents and children—have any idea what is about to be revealed. This is a truly special moment.”
There is “so much” in this simple gesture. Valery Poshtarovplaces father and son on the same level. That is why he does not photograph children. That is why he always seeks out adults with perfect “senseof autonomy.” “It’s a very special moment because it alsoita moment of recognition. We are recognizing the other as our equal. And it a turning point for many parents and children. It is a moment of connection and alsoalso of liberation..”
The more you devote yourself to the project, the more it becomes a “investigation” into cultural heritage and how we form our identity, and how that identity is linked to the models we have inherited. “This issometimes more a question of cultural anthropology than of photography. And that’s that’s what keeps me going,” says the author, who had spent roughly 15 years wandering through the mountains of Rhodope in search ofthe last representatives of customs and traditions that have fallen into disuse in the nearly 1,000villages in the region – seeking to capture in black and white the past and an entire culture that is slowly disappearing forever. The two projects are part of a larger investigation into “the place of human beings in society and nature. It is almost the same historyhistorystory.”
With their fingers and lives intertwined, father and son reveal so much throughisthe way they look, how they behave, how they occupy space, and atis in the clothes they wear and the utensils and tools that surround them. Itismother and daughter. ThereThereare neither mothers nor daughters. “Perhaps because I believe that this is the most recurring theme in Hist”Aart. Meanwhile, the father and fatherhood – and this connection – have been, in a way, neglected. And now, at a time when there is much more debate about the role of the father, this sense of involvement in the family structure is being more widely recognized. At the same time, it remains somewhat ambiguous, and thereare many questions to be asked. Itnot want just answer them, only to pose them.”
“There is this understanding that the mother is something that comes to us naturally. Her support is unquestionableable. With the father, however, we have to earn his trust. We have to prove our worth to the father figure. And that is linked to the responsibility we have to find our place in the world. We have to prove ourselves; we have to find our place within that broader structure.”
Father and Son isjust that – of a father and a son holding hands: “It’s about human connection. And finding ways to connectin a meaningful way. I keep asking myself: what are the essential values we can still hold on to? How can we,onlywe, genuinely interested genuinely interested in what lies ahead with the new generations, in their ways of life and understanding, and how can we connect with young people?” asks the author, , 38 years old, a native of Varna, the son of an artist father and a poet mother, and the father of two teenagers.
“We have to adapt and be more attentive to each other’s needs, without imposing or expecting outdated, inherited models. Authority is now questionable, and true authority is based on understanding mutualmutual”
Art is, without a doubt, another means of connection, building emotional bridges, facilitating communication, and creating emotional bonds,teaching hands.
“In a world that already has isis drifting away, weholding becomes a silent prayer, a way to come together again. As they pose, parents and childrenhands for the first time in years, sometimesitfall. It is a powerful moment, often fraught with hesitation or resistance, that reveals our cultural, but alsoisa attractionuniversal of connection, legacy, and vulnerability in our human experience. The essence of the project lies in this intimate act, in which the photographs bear witness to the deep, yet often ununspoken between parents and children.”
When I was a child, Valery found an old box of photographs that belonged to her grandmothergrandmother. In that box, she came across a portrait of a woman and a handwritten inscription that read:“Igave you my face as a gift because time passes and erases our mem.” This sentence touched him deeply. “Here was this woman, forgotten by time, but her image remained, looking at me as if she were still alive. It was my first realizationof how photography can capturetime, like a time machine that preserves moments forever. Photography opens the door to something that goesbeyondbeyond the mere visual – it allows us to imagine what life was like, to interpret histstoriesof which we were never a part, but to which we feel deeply connected. It gives us the freedom to fill in the gaps with our ownownown imagination.”
