Until Death Do Us Part by Thomas Sauvin

Until Death Do Us Part by Thomas Sauvin explores the surprising role cigarettes play in Chinese weddings. As a token of appreciation, it is customary for the bride to light a cigarette for each male guest. The bride and groom are then invited to play cigarette-smoking games of unprecedented ingenuity. This publication pays homage to a tradition where love and death go hand in hand.

These photos come from the Beijing Silvermine project (北京银矿), an archive of half a million negatives recovered over the years from a recycling plant outside Beijing.