Once I visited Croatia in the Balkans, in particular, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Before going there I read a lot about the country. Wars that took place there in the ‘90s were always in my mind but I did as always, I took pictures of Life as I usually did.  In Dubrovnik, while I was waiting for the bus with my Leica M6 in my hands I watched an elderly couple, I don’t know if they met each other or if they didn’t, but I noticed that they were looking at around noticeboard with special attention.

On it there were obituaries of people who have just died. Their expression while looking at it shocked me; instinctively I shot my camera.

I continued my trip. First I visited the beautiful and nostalgic  Sarajevo city, isolated by its mountains and its sad XX century history. Later he hit the city of Mostar where the marks caused by mortars talk about wounds still painful and where its bridge, rebuilt by  Blue Berets, is unsuccessfully trying to join together two worlds which previously were united. I couldn’t forget the image I watched in Croatia and without noticing I found myself again shooting similar scenes. On this occasion  they were different people with different religions but their expressions while looking at the obituaries were identical. Curiosity, sorrow, surprise, incredulity. Obituaries with the Crescent moon instead of the Cross, that was the only difference. Human beings are the same everywhere. We behave in the same way when we face the absolute and transcendental reality and meaning of Death.

I came back home, to Christian Spain, and I decided to go on with this open series. Wherever I found one of these “Information points” I documented,  by means of my Leica or my Rolleiflex,  an identical situation to the ones I have watched before, although each picture is different and unique.

This series caused me to open my mind and be aware that taking pictures of death mirrored in people’s eyes is part of life. A life that all of us cling to and that still catches us by surprise when it suddenly leaves.

Jose Luis Gea

Street and documentary photographer based in Orihuela, Spain.

Cofounder of collective  Street Soul photography and  collaborator in Photo DNG Photomagazine writing about Street photography. Cofounder of Fotomaton Festival since 2016.

Since 1999, combines analog photography with digital photography in black and white and color, but today he focus only on her origins, making only film.

Obsessed with street life he practices street portrait as documentary photography as well as candid street photo.

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