Rotting from Within © Abdulhamid Kircher
Abdulhamid Kircher and Diana Markosian explore their latest photo books in an in-depth conversation with Aperture and BJP
Last week, we welcomed photographers Diana Markosian and Abdulhamid Kircher online to speak about their respective photo books, Father (Aperture) and Rotting From Within (Loose Joints), which both offer an alternative, brutally honest look at fatherhood. The talk was hosted by BJP’s online editor, Dalia Al-Dujaili.
Born in Berlin, Kircher left for the United States as a child, leaving his father behind. Only later, when he was seventeen, did he become more familiar with his father’s life in Turkey and Germany. Rotting from Within chronicles Kircher’s summers in Berlin, documenting a new relationship with his father and, slowly, his disillusionment with him.
In her first book, Santa Barbara (Aperture, 2020), Markosian recreates the story of her family’s journey from post-Soviet Russia to the US in the 1990s, sans her father. Father uses both documentary photographs and archives of objects, letters, and vernacular images to probe the fifteen years of her father’s absence.
Watch the full panel discussion below.