When photographer John Paul Evans began documenting his relationship with his "then-civil partner, now-married partner" Peter, he was hoping to showcase a new interpretation of traditional family photos. His resulting series Till Death Do Us Part does just that.
"I was critical of the way that photography is used to reinforce concepts of the family and normality," Evans told Refinery29. "As a consequence, I have very few images of the 26 years that Peter and I have spent together. As I am now entering my 50s and Peter is in his late 70s, there was an urgency to address this."
And so, he and his partner became the picture of domesticity, so to speak, and took on traditional poses for the series. They wore floral aprons; they offered each other flower bouquets; and they laid out each other's suits and underwear for the day to come.
These images do more than just satirise traditional marriage tropes. Evans gives these banalities deeper meaning by capturing the comfort of domestic life, while simultaneously suggesting something darker. Marriage provides intimacy, but its promise of "'till death do us part" can also force people to confront mortality — both their own and their partner's.
Evans hopes that his photos evoke "a mixture of comedy and melancholy," as these "are both life-affirming emotions," he said. Click through to see a selection of images from Till Death Do Us Part.
"I am aware that Peter and I are not what would be considered an ideal couple by mainstream media. There is a 27-year age difference, and in real life, we have sometimes been confused as father and son."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"But that is the reality of my 'lived' experience, and on one level I see these works as a personal memoir of two people at different stages in their personal chronology, exploring ideas of space, place, and time."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"It was all of these differences and visual discrepancies that made me want to explore an ongoing body of images that reflect on a couple who, in some ways, seems like an outsider or alien as a metaphor for the concept of 'otherness.'"
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"I have found that our age difference can be an issue for some people, regardless of whether they are gay or straight. In this sense, I wanted to represent our place in the world, even if it doesn’t conform to other peoples' expectations of how a couple should appear."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"I believe we are socialised into codes of behaviour that seem natural to the point of invisibility. In this sense, we expect men and women to behave in particular ways, and we expect people to form relationships within their generation groups."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"While laws may have changed in some Western countries to protect the rights of gay people, for some citizens and particular religious groups, it will never be considered the norm."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"The expressionless poses in the domestic environment and the suit and tie reinforce the traditional concept of the patriarch in Western culture as a controlling figure lacking in emotion. But this expectation for men to retain power if they don't convey emotion only demonstrates the absurdity of patriarchal hegemony."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"It was important that the images were very solemn in trying to convey the uncanny feel of two figures frozen in time. This deadpan presence, if performed correctly, should also reveal a darkly comic side as the lack of expression will be open to interpretation."
Photo: Courtesy of John Paul Evans.
"I am not sure what 'romance' means to me as a person. I can only say that Peter is the only person I unconditionally love and trust, and this provides me with a degree of sanity in what often seems like a mad world."
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