Imagine that after death you will become a tree, part of the forest, unlimited and free energy. A lively monument will grow on you. Eternal U is a story about the so-called good death and eternity. Through photographs of forests being natural cemeteries where the dead are buried in biodegradable urns or coffins, marked only with a previously selected tree, Hubert Humka shows a certain way of thinking about us as a code, an immortal chain of some larger universe. 'In each of these places, the forest itself, giving eternal rest to the people buried there, was the most important element for me,' Humka says. 'There I photographed the soil in which they rested and the bark of the trees they became. I like to think that the roots of these trees, drawing from the people buried under them, include them in their existence, that nothing ends, that it is only our human self that changes. We become a tree, a forest, part of something bigger that reaches beyond us.' Eternal U is the second joint publishing project of Humka and Blow Up Press after Death Landscapes. The book was created in the spirit of sustainable development, on ecological recycled papers; its main axis are photographs of the forest (life), accompanied by negatives (death) and embossed text about leaving (traces we leave behind). 'With this book I close my own trilogy of death,' the artist says. The book was awarded Gold in the European Design Awards and was shortlisted for the Arles Prix du Livre.

AWARDS

Shortlisted for the 2024 Arles Prix du Livre award in the Photo-Text category

Shortlisted for the 2024 PHotoESPAÑA Best Photography Book of the Year Award (Bibliophilia category)

Honorable Mention at the 2024 Photographic Publication of the Year award

Gold Award in the 2024 European Design Awards in the Book Layout category

Polish Radio 24's Glebia Ostrosci: Photobooks of the Year (Marek Grygiel)

Listed on the Robin Titchener's Photobooks of 2024 -

A personal selection list