Tim Parchikov

In cinema, suspense denotes unresolved conflict, an undecided outcome, the accumulation of vague and inexplicable anxiety. But, distinct from cinematography, where apprehension grips the audience in precise doses at the director's bidding, in real life, involuntary trepidation proves to be irrepressible and overwhelming.

The photographer is obliged to traverse space—visually, not physically—and in this sense, as a traveller, he is more unprotected than the rest of us. An equally unpredictable feeling of suspense may overtake him on a deserted embankment in Istanbul, or in the middle of a crowded square in Rome or Naples. Photography becomes a shield that protects him from stupefaction and reconciles him with uncertainty.

Suspense project is the visual manifesto of the new 'lost' generation of young people who, at the turn of the century, acquired complete freedom of information and movement as well as the illusion of all-pervasive communication, yet forfeited an integrated system of value judgment and were unexpectedly confronted by complete isolation. Their lives turned into a lonely journey in search of lost self-identification. Any halting point and encounter with reality during this journey became a form of suspense.