To Die So As To Leave The Hell

Raymond Depardon... Untitled (from the series San Clemente, a mental asylum in San Clemente near Venice, 1982). From the exhibit To Die So As To Leave The Hell, photographs by James Nachtwey, Don McCullin, Sebastião Salgado, Raymond Depardon, Joël-Peter Witkin, Dieter Appelt, and Elizabeth Prouvost at Dmochowski Gallery. "...the photographs show the fortunes of people for whom the existence was (and still is – for those who have survived) the only, never-ending streak of suffering and only death (usually tragic) lets them find the peace. Today I am showing seven artists. They are very famous (except for Prouvost, who is less known, but I had the honour to present her works in my real gallery in Paris at the time when I still had it). Their works have greatly impressed me for a long time. With this exhibition I would like to pay my tribute to them and at least a little bit contribute to making them popular, especially in Poland. For in the West almost everybody knows them, so I am not discovering anything to an average European aesthete."