THESE EARTHLY SHORES
"These Earthly Shores" is a corpus of images that explores the definition and origin of the poetic landscape as it relates to memory and the passage of time. The geography of the place becomes a depiction of a peculiar natural beauty that emerges as a recollection rather than a faithful representation of its physical form. The natural world is transformed into a set of symbolic portraits that reflect the emotional connection to various pasts, the senses, the complexities, the nostalgic and invisible stories woven into the humane.
The creation of a new context is proposed inside the book by incorporating poems by the Greek poet Dimitris Leontzakos. The poems do not impose a way to interpret the pictures nor the pictures define the form and the content of the poems. Instead, a multilayered flow of poetry appears to co-exist. The relationship created by the poems and the images transforms that context into a completely new and organic, a non-linear narrative.
AFTER ECHO
“After Echo” is a depiction of an internal journey that resonates through my silent encounters with nature and places that I visited over the last ten years. Having the need for introspection and reflection, I felt the urge to explore the possibilities for something I could relate to, something that could deeply move me, evoking memories and emotions. I wanted to create a visual and poetic territory that would act as a link between reality and a universe where a harmonious correlation could be achieved between the fantasy of an escape and the mysteries of the dreamy.
In other words, the world where I would rather exist.
It's an attempt to convey a sense of longing for a timeless beauty, to portray the essence behind the apparent and the perpetual presence of the sublime. Furthermore, it constitutes an emotional response to the proportions of space and time in which we experience life.
Through conversations of fragments of memory, experiences are reconstructed, emotions are transformed and create the silent context that seems to be the hope for the embrace between the past and the future.
The significant places that magnetize me in this work are essentially an honest testimony to the achievement of a goal, which is nothing more than the pursuit of inner peace as a permanent state. Ultimately, at its core, it's about the awareness of one being present and the reconnection of oneself with the whole.
BEYOND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
A photographic project by Daphne Kotsiani where she imprints a series of photos taken in Northern Norway over a period of 7 years.
Desolated areas covered with ice, solitary figures standing in the middle of nowhere, reflections that under the winter light transform the land into canvas, revealing abstract forms. Colorful structures breaking the white monotony of the snow and motifs that sometimes speak of loneliness and abandonment, giving the impression that time has stopped. The vastness of the Arctic, the absolute silence, indicating the lack of human presence. Sometimes the lines between reality, fleeting impression and personal memory become unclear and eventually insignificant.
The photos are accompanied by poems of Kelly Malamatou that create a dreamy, nostalgic feel through metaphors, full of depth and contemplation within a simple few lines.
