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.

Author (photographs & interviews): Agata Grzybowska
Proverb: Stefano de Luigi | VII Photo
Design: Aneta Kowalczyk
Translation: Aleksandra Szymczyk

Music CD: over 40 minutes of ambient music inspired by Igor Pisuk’s images

Cover: hard, canvas with two bindings
Format: 240×327 mm
Number of pages: 200
Number of photographs: 74
Language version: English

Print run: 600 (including 30 copies of the collector’s edition)
Printing & binding: Argraf, Warsaw, Poland

Publication date: November 2017
ISBN: 978-83-939917-5-4