Photography Center of Thessaloniki participates in the International Photo Festival "Mirafoto 2009",
in Lima, Peru on October, 2009
... in gallery "El Ojo Ajeno" (Centro de la Imagen)
The opening is on the 20th of October, 2009.
Title: "A-PROSOPA (UN-FACES)” (Portrait photography after portrait)
“A-PROSOPA (UN-FACES)”
( Portrait photography after portrait)
ASPECTS OF GREEK PHOTOGRAPHY
From the very beginning, photography was mainly involved in the use of human form as subject and object. From the simple shot to scientific photography, and from the illegible and imageless, the presence of human form has been used as a tool, able to express the untold and the questioning of each era.
What is in the photographers’ mind these days?
The Photography Center of Thessaloniki is presenting a representative panorama of Modern Greek photography through the works of 12 photographers expressing unique parts of the trends and practices found in the landscape of Greek photography nowadays. All generations of photographers are represented and all aesthetics schools and trends, from realistic photography to directed photography and digital which has been created from nothing. Photographers equipped with the photographic image and through their personal view, present portraits. Sometimes the photographers use special techniques and give unique form in their works.
Participants are: Stavros Dagtzides, Vassilis Karkatselis, Thanassis Raptis, Babis Venetopoulos, Efthimis Mouratides, Argyris Liapopoulos, Giorgos Papacharalampous, Ismene Goula, Achilles Savvopoulous, Abraham Pavlides, Dimitris Triantafillou, Dimitra Ermeidou.
Until the 12th of November, 2009
The multi-faced man or/ and the faceless man or/ and the man-face… Man- body- face- mask- display case but also soul as an exhibit. No polishing and shining, dark eyes, dim skin, tight lips… or, moments of joy, excitement, sparkling eyes… or, … from the black of the sea to the light blue of the sky and back to black again… Detached faces, sensual faces, sly faces harmless faces… Unalarmed faces or innocent ones…
Vassilis Karkatselis is photographing friends and strangers in the night, when everything is different. He is crowded in public WCs, with friends and strangers, because the dim light is enough to show the inner glow and the character of his models. The use of the medium is traditional whereas the result is not. Dark is disclosing and hiding the same things with light. His colorless pictures underlie the view of this project that has been open for years.
Efthimis Mouratides is using photography in an effort to comment the changes that hide behind excessive exposure and publicity. He is searching the face of the man after the wear of everyday life. He is inventing fortuities. The photographer is there to record the invisible and obscure results of the actions held by his fellowmen. His pictures are posters after Rotella, after the decoupage.
Αrgyris Liapopoulos sharpens our appetite since he is showing man’s primitive need for food. Manuel Macbeth Montalmpan is mentioning in one of his books: “Eating means killing and devouring an existence that has been living. It is either an animal or a plant. If we were devouring the animal raw we would be regarded uncivilized. But if we marinate the animal and cook it with spicies from Provence and a glass of an old, sweet wine, then we have accomplished an exceptional cultural venture, which is nonetheless based on cruelty and death”.
Giorgos Papacharalampous is presenting young girls who have reached the stage of their first puberty. The photographer is doing so in an innocent way yet, he is trying to seduce us. In his portraits, assisted by dramatic lighting, we see the coexistence of the doll-toy with fatal woman, the pubertal disrespect with the tender and innocent child’s heart…
Babis Venetopoulos in his work called “Time”, is focusing on how time is influencing and transforming people. We see the gradual and inevitable transformation of a man from young to old and vice-versa. It is a partial and impalpable substitution of the face and body of himself with the face and body of his father, who is in any case the patient model- protagonist in the photographer’s works. The perpetual passing from the young body to the old one and vice –versa, as well as the simultaneous coexistence of two bodies in one, gives a shocking and complex transformation that makes viewers to suffer with anguish. This work is related to the presentation, with the use of technology, of the instant wear of the body and the destruction of spirit.
Abraham Pavlides is looking for his subjects wandering in Greece. From the region Ferres in Evros, to Dolo in the Greek-Albanian border, to Mani, mountain Arcadia and the Aegean islands, the photographers is looking and collecting information. In this frame, he is taking advantage of all the time he has in his disposal, he is pursuing people to surpass their distrust against the lens, and allow him to take their pictures…
Stavros Dagtzides is commenting on Time. Time that is flying and is unbeatable. The photographer has taken shots of his close environment, seven years ago. Eight subjects. The woman in the photograph is holding in her hands photographs of various stages of her life, important moments of her life that have left a mark on her life. The ninth photography is representing the current stage of her life and the tenth shot…. will be taken after seven years. It is an ongoing project. The red neon light is the life line, the biological continuity and the discontinuity of each and everyone of us.
The works of Dimitra Ermeidou play the role of visual poems or psychographies. She is interested in the eternal conflict between presence and past and the way the human identity as well as the basic human virtues and ethics, the individual and collective subconscious are been shaped by pre-fabricated systems.
Thanassis Raptis’s setting is causing mixed emotions: well-bred women are photographed in their familiar environment and the background is a decorated wall of their homes. However, the conventional frame with the work of art is presenting a disemboweled animal that has been hit by a car in the Greece.
Achilles Savvopoulos is occupied with the transformations of what is given, of the stereotypes, of the man’s image. Viewers can see the transformation of what is obvious in an environment that is from folklorist to kitsch. Man is constantly changing but deep down, he is the same. Neither the mask nor the costume could manage to stop this process.
Dimitris Triantafyllou (personal photography) is using photography in order to construct and record a personal space and time that is constituted by memories, past and future, senses, lust, fear and mainly instinct. Through the mixing of all these ingredients, he manages to present something clear and fresh, an aroma of expression that gives him the possibility to define his true colors.
Ismene Goula, being a young photograph, likes to put under test the works of photographers that have become myths of photography and at the same time, she is testing her joys and hopes on their works. In her works she is renegotiating the history of art through the art of Jan Saudek, a Czech photographer born in Prague in 1935 who was the reason that she was involved in photography.
The photographers...
Dimitra Ermeidou was born on 1975 in Athens, Greece. She studied painting at the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, with Professor Makis Theofylaktopoulos and graduated with honors. As part of her studies she took part at the Pictor European Laboratory. Artworks by Ermeidou are kept at: BALA Collection, ACG Art in the American College of Greece and at private collections. She lives and works in Athens
d.ermeidou@yahoo.gr
Ismini Goula was born in 1980 in Thessaloniki/Greece.
High school graduate, jewelery design degree, seminars on direction,
documentary and video art (IRIS) _duration 2 years
Member of the Photography Center Of Thessaloniki in which
she studied photography for 4 years .
At this moment she lives and work in Berlin.
She has participated in 15 group-exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
47, Filippou- 54631 Thessaloniki Greece- ismini_goula@yahoo.gr / http://www.myspace.com/ismini_goula
Efthimis Mouratidis was born in Aravissos Prefecture Pella in 1961.
Attended photography courses in Photography Group of Triandria Thessalonica.
As a founding member and a current member of the administration board of the Photography Center of Thessalonica, he has presented work in many exhibitions, both individual and group.
Has lived in Thessalonica, working in the field of creative photography, since 1990 and video art since 2007.
57 Agiou Stefanou Str. 56727 Neapoli Thessaloniki Greece emouratidis@the.forthnet.gr
Vassilis Karkatselis
Born in Athens in 1952, he attended several painting, photography and engraving classes and presented his engravings and paintings in 11 solo and in more than 50 exhibitions in Greece and abroad. Participated in more than 200 group photography exhibitions and held 23 solo photo exhibitions (some of them are in tour around the world). He took part in numerous happenings, installations and group actions with the purpose of broadening the communication of public with works of art.
From 1984 he moves to Thessaloniki and works mainly with engravings and creative photography. In 1984 he founds the “Photography Group of Triandria”, in 1995 the group “Praxis- Photographers Initiative”, in 1998 the multiform group “FOTODRAMA”, and in 2001 the “Hellenic Lomographic Society”. In the past, he published 23 issues of a magazine titled “Pages about Photography” which was a theoretical magazine for “photography beyond bounds”. In the past he was member of the consultative committee of the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, of the committee for photography of the Organization “Thessaloniki Cultural Capital of Europe 1997 ”, and art consultant of the Gallery “Artistic Creation”.
Today, he is president of the artistic committee of the Photography Center of Thessaloniki and member of numerous groups of art.
9 Karaiskaki St. -Sikies Thessaloniki Greece-56626 Greece katselis@the.forthnet.gr
A private employee, Abraham Pavlidis has been taken photographs regularly since 1990.He has shown his work in Ankona, Italy (2002), Photographic Center of Thessaloniki (2002), and the group show «Time depositories», at the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (2003).His photography is a natural extension of his keen interest in travelling and his desire to record places where people work, worship and live their private lives- places charged with memory and tradition.
info@fkth.gr
Thanassis Raptis was born in 1962, lives in Thessaloniki, Greece and has studied the Law, at Aristotle’s University. He belongs to the persons that founded Photography Centre of Thessaloniki and at this time he is member of its Council and member of its Art Committee. He has been responsible for the production of many photo exhibitions. He is writing articles about modern art in magazines of Thessaloniki. For the last fifteen years he has been participant of more than forty group photography exhibitions and he has also organised seven exhibitions of his own. His work has been published in many catalogues and magazines. Except these, narratives, tales and translations from Spanish have been published in literary magazines.
22,Serron str -Thessaloniki- Greece raptisth@the.forthnet.gr
Stavros Dagtzidis was born in Komotini (Greece). He studied pharmacist, photography and cinema.
Founding member of the photography Center of Thessaloniki, has participated in a lot of exhibitions in the Greece and abroad.
Occupied with photography, installations and video.
8, Ag.Spiridonos str. -Triandria 55337 -Thessaloniki- Greece stavrhsd@otenet.gr
Achileas Savopoulos was born in 1958 and is living in Kavala. He got his degree from the University of England and USA. Member of EFE and Photographic Club in Kavala and for some years he was the president. He participated in many Group Shows and he had One Man Shows with many awards and honorable mentions in greek and international contests. He cooperated with greek and foreing magazines in the production of audio visual slide shows and video clips.
artwarehouse@hotmail.com
Argyris Liapopoulos was born in 1959 in Klidi Imathia. He studied economics at the University of Thessaloniki. With the photo involved systematically since 1988. Developed a wide variety of action with reports, happenings. Photos and his work was done covers in books, a material book, published in magazines and tributes have been in the daily press and the media.
He took part in individual and group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
He lives and works in Thessaloniki
35 Lehovoy Str.,546 26, Sykies Thessaloniki www.liapopoulos.gr argirisi@otenet.gr
Giorgos Papacharalampous was born in 1983. He studied in the technical university of Thessaloniki, automatization. In 2000 he studied for two years photography in Photographic center of Thessaloniki. He attended a workshop of Anders Petersen (2003) and currently working on his master’s in photography in Ostkreuzschule in Berlin. His photography has been displayed in several group exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
photogeorge@gmail.com
Dimitris Triantafillou was born in 1967, studied Physics and Mathematics (B.A. Macalester College, St.Paul Minnesota) and has a Core Degree in Asian philosophy (Macalester College) and an MA in Biophysics (University of Minnesota). He also has studied photography at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, MN. He has attended two workshops given by the Swedish Master Photographer Anders Petersen. One in Thassos and one in Kavala. He currently works as a freelancer in Photography and teaches photography courses.
dimitris.triantafyllou@gmail.com http://www.dimitristriantafyllou.com/
Babis Venetopoulos was born in 1973. Master in «Digital Forms of Art», School of Fine Arts, Athens (2003-2005). Visual and Applied Arts Department of the School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, studio of Yiannis Fokas (1996-2002). Interior Design, IEK Delta of Thessaloniki (1993-1995). Co-founder of Minotaur Digital Arts, a production company specialized in 3D Animation and VFX for television and cinema. He is teaching in Visual and Applied Arts Department of the School of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (studio of Kyriakos Katzourakis). Lives and works in Athens and Thessaloniki.
babis@mda.gr
PHOTOGRAPHY CENTER OF THESSALONIKI (GREECE) www.fkth.gr
The Photography Centre of Thessaloniki is a non-profit company running almost for the last ten years in Thessaloniki, Greece, in the Balkans and lately across Europe.
In Greece Photography Centre of Thessaloniki became known all these years especially due to the long struggle for artistic photography and of course, through the exhibitions and other events (street actions, school guided tours, intervention with articles on press).
Photography Centre of Thessaloniki has collaborated with almost all of the museums in North Greece as the Photography Museum of Thessaloniki, the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Byzantine Culture, Water Supply Museum of Thessaloniki, Folk life Museum of Xanthi, with foreign institutes (Goethe Institute, French Institute, Italian Institute), as well as with many municipalities and prefectures.
It has also become known in the Balkans during the last fifteen years due to the development of collaborations and exchanges with individual photographers, but also with all the important institutions and festivals (museums, universities, galleries, photography centres, and photography festivals) that foster the photography in the Balkans through events under the name "Aspects of Balkan Photography".
Since 2005, the activities of the Photography Centre of Thessaloniki are spread across Europe through its involvement, as founder member, in the Photofestival Union, in which take part the most important nongovernmental photography festivals from all European countries.
The site of Photography Center of Thessaloniki www.fkth.gr accomplished something unique: To provide with documents, CVs and photography material almost all of its exhibitions and also to include links with photos from the most prominent Greek and Balkan photographers.
The Photography Centre of Thessaloniki publishes also many catalogues, photo albums and DVDs, especially for its international exhibitions in Greece.
The future orientation of Photography Centre of Thessaloniki consists in organising important festivals and collaborations with prominent agents and festivals in Greece, the Balkans and across Europe. This orientation will follow the way the company paved so far, through institutions that the same company created and developed successfully ("Aspects of Balkan Photography"), involved in their foundation and later supported (Photofestival Union) and through which it is presented on the occasion of the 1st International Meeting of Photography Centres in May 2008 in Spain.
The standards, according to which the photographers are judged whether to participate in the company or not, are very high and is given emphasis on the enrichment of the company with young and competent photographers, encouraging their participation in high level festivals for grabbing opportunities and collecting experience.
