Own Death

“I looked into its filmy eyes inquisitively and saw it was the body’s fear, not mine, not the soul’s, and so it was fear of death. I realised I could distinguish between my inner self and my physical body… An ice-cold surface covered my inner heat.” Péter Nádas

In this short story a man relates his innermost thoughts as he suffers a heart attack on the street and is then brought back to life after three and a half minutes. It is a compelling tale of something appalling and completely ordinary, of pain and fear and acceptance, while walking the thin line between life and death.

In contrast to the speed of this near-death experience, Own Death includes a series of photos in which the passage of time is hardly apparent. Over the course of a year the author photographed a wild pear tree in his garden at different times of the day, recording its changes under a range of light conditions. Own Death contrasts perceptions of the here and now with the hereafter, and its complex composition alludes to the passage of mortal time.