This Photographer Asked Fathers And Sons To Hold Hands In 15 Countries, And The Results Are Deeply Emotional

Holding hands is one of the simplest human gestures, yet it can carry an astonishing emotional weight. It can calm fear, express protection, communicate love without words, or bridge distances that have existed for years. Between fathers and sons, however, that gesture often disappears with age, replaced by handshakes, nods, silence, or the unspoken assumption that affection no longer needs physical expression. That is what makes photographer Valery Poshtarov’s project "Father and Son" feel so unexpectedly powerful. In his portraits, grown men who have not touched each other tenderly in years, sometimes decades, are asked to simply hold hands again. The result reveals emotions that many of them never learned how to articulate out loud.

What began as a deeply personal idea, photographing his 95-year-old grandfather holding hands with his own father, slowly evolved into an international portrait series exploring masculinity, intimacy, heritage, and emotional vulnerability across generations.

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#1 Passy, France, 2025

In Poshtarov’s photographs fathers and sons stand together across villages, coastlines, homes, and city streets in 15 countries, and their body language carrying histories that words rarely manage to explain. Some participants embraced the gesture immediately, while others hesitated, laughed nervously, or visibly struggled with the discomfort of physical closeness. That tension is exactly what gives the series its emotional depth.

#2 Gveleti, Georgia, 2023

#3 Orla, Serbia, 2022

Born in Bulgaria in 1986, Poshtarov grew up in a household where art and poetry shaped everyday life, guided by an artist father and poet mother. After studying at the National High School of Arts in Varna and later at the Sorbonne in Paris, he built an internationally recognized body of work focused on memory, identity, and human connection. His long-term documentary projects have been exhibited across Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia, earning recognition for their emotional sensitivity and patient observation. One of his best-known works, "The Last Man Standing In The Rhodope Mountains", documented disappearing rural communities across 985 villages over the course of 14 years and later became part of collections including MoMA New York and MEP Paris.

#4 Bistritsa, Bulgaria, 2023

#5 Agarak, Armenia, 2023

Through "Father and Son" project Poshtarov explores how masculinity, religion, family traditions, and cultural expectations shape the relationships between men across Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Turkey. Despite the differences in language, geography, and customs, the photographs reveal something universal: love between fathers and sons is often deeply felt, yet rarely expressed directly. By leaving each portrait open to interpretation, Poshtarov invites viewers to bring their own memories and emotions into the work, transforming the project from a series of portraits into a beautiful reflection on connection, inheritance, and the fragile human need to feel close to one another.