“You say that I live at the end of the world?
The end of the world is there, on the left. I live even further, I live beyond.”

In 9 GATES OF NO RETURN Agata Grzybowska presents 9 persons who for various reasons and life choices have decided to give up their lives in the city and settle in the woods of the Bieszczady Mountains, south-eastern Poland. Bieszczady, which for many are a symbol of freedom and direct, tangible contact with nature, became a trap for them, which they cannot get out from. They live far away from other people, often without electricity and running water, in the huts they built themselves.

Why did they make such decisions? What was driving them? What did they run away from? What did they want to achieve in this way? What the loneliness and melancholy is for them? These are just some of the questions that Grzybowska is trying to answer with 9 GATES OF NO RETURN.

Comprised of two parts, Grzybowska’s book contains extremely powerful portraits and landscapes printed in quadtones, accompanied by colourful polaroids and memorable handwritten interviews. All photographs were taken during several Grzybowska’s winter stays in the Bieszczady Mountains. 

AWARDS

• GOLD WINNER – Tokyo International Foto Awards 2018’s Book – People category

• GOLD WINNER – Photo Book of the Year – Plebiscite Fotopolis & Digital Camera 2017

• GOLD WINNER – Photo Book of the Year – Grand Press Photo 2018

• SILVER WINNER – Photo Book / People – Moscow International Foto Awards 2018

• Honorable Mention in the International Photography Awards 2018

• Official Selection for Photo Book Exhibition – Athens Photo Festival 2018

• Official Selection for Photo Book Exhibition – Month of Photography Los Angeles 2018

• Shortlisted for the Best Photo Book of the Year International – PHotoEspaña 2018

• Finalist of the 16th Felifa Festival de Libros de Fotografia y Afines in Buenos Aires 2018

• Official Selection for Photo Book Exhibition – Scan Tarragona in Catalonia 2018

Photographs: Agata Grzybowska
Proverb: Stefano de Luigi | VII Photo
Book designer: Aneta Kowalczyk

Photo edition: Agata Grzybowska, Grzegorz Kosmala, Aneta Kowalczyk, Aleksandra Szymczyk, Anna Theiss
Interviews: Agata Grzybowska
Text selection and translation: Aleksandra Szymczyk
Proofreading: Joanna Romanowicz, Kate Romanowicz
Text correction: Aleksandra Duszyńska, Grzegorz Kosmala

Cover: hard, canvas with two bindings
Format: 240×327 mm
Number of pages: 200
Number of photographs: 66 (quadtones) + 8 (colours)
Language version: English

Collector's edition: 
30 handmade wooden boxes with a book and a baryta print numbered and signed by the photographer (3 prints with edition of 10).
Box size: 260x353x55 mm
Print: 240x280 mm  

Printing: Argraf, Warsaw
Publication date: November 2017
Publisher: BLOW UP PRESS
ISBN: 978-83-939917-5-4