Leave Stay is a story of loss, longing, emigration and memory. In more than 100 photos, the author tells the story of his unknown father in an eclectic way. He presents him from the perspective of those close to him who had the opportunity to know him. He asks questions he knows he will not get answers to. As he himself says in an interview that is an integral part of the exhibition, he “only rubs” against the idea of who his father was.
Book Description:
“On August 30, 1992, we were returning from a Sunday at the water. Someone in the house was just opening the door when I heard the phone ring. I ran to answer it. I thought it was Dad calling from the States. Instead of Dad, I heard a woman’s voice asking someone adult. I was 8 years old, and the lady on the other end of the line gave us the news that my Dad was dead. He had left for America a few years earlier and I knew him only from a few photos and the voice on the receiver. Now, almost thirty years later, I realize that I don’t know who my Dad was. I’m trying to get to know him, and my relatives – my mother, brother, grandmother and uncle – are helping me. They show me my father’s memorabilia and look at old photos and tell me stories related to him. They allow me to take photographs in places where they experienced important moments with my father. Even though these efforts are doomed to failure, I make them anyway” (from the introduction to the book).
O autorze:
Rafal Siderski (born 1984). Visual artist working mainly with photography. He completed his doctoral studies at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava. He currently works as an assistant professor at Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa. He is part of the Albom.pl initiative for digitizing and working on photographic archives. In 2019, he published the book “Leave Stay” and in 2024, the book “Dopplings, Vibrations, Afterimages and Songs on the Banks” was premiered. In his spare time he is “going somewhere” or is “somewhere”.
www.rafalsiderski.com, Instagram: @rafal.siderski
