I have the great honour to announce that I will be participating in the 2019 organization of the Contrast Photography Festival of Thessaloniki. The festival’s title is “2084” and it aims to investigate the various interpretations of the prophetic book “1984” by George Orwell. “2084” will feature four big group exhibitions that will present many different perspectives and insights inspired by the 1984 book with references to the present and the future.
When I saw the open call for submissions to the festival, quite a while ago, I was immediately drawn to it because of its theme. George Orwell’s “1984” is one of my all time favorite books and undoubtedly one of the world’s literary masterpieces. I made the decision to participate and right away I started to think of ideas for a brand new photo series based on the festival’s theme.
My idea led me to a whole new photographic experience, trying out so many new things to make it work. I made a brand new series, titled “we are the dead“, that will be displayed for the first time ever during the festival. Although the series was completed many months ago, I chose to wait and release it online just before the festival. So, during the next weeks, I will start to release the pictures, followed by some rather extensive blog posts about the whole process and experience. Also you will have the chance to take a look behind the scenes, in a series of videos that I have prepared for you. I am really excited that the time has finally come to share this experience with you!
Details for the upcoming exhibition:
Archaelogical Museum of Thessaloniki, Periodic Exhibitions Hall C
Opening: Sunday December 1st, 12:00
Duration: 1/12/2019 – 12/1/2020
Archaelogical Museum of Thessaloniki : 6 Man. Andronikou, tel. 2313310201
Opening hours: everyday: 8:30-16:00 ( December 25th, 26th and January 1st: closed)
I wish you all a happy new year, filled with inspiration, imagination and creativity!
The end of the year always seems as an appropriate time to reflect on one’s choices, successes or failures. It is a time when we all get to stop for a minute and actually think about how we spend our lives and if we are satisfied.
When I was younger I used to keep a diary, like all the little girls, where every end of the year I would write a summary of my year, mainly to revisit my most important moments and somehow keep them with me. I still feel that taking some time to reflect on your life like this is precious and because of that, I believe everyone should do it more often and not just once a year. Perhaps that should be my first goal for 2015: taking more time to self-reflect.
In terms of photography, this year has been full of satisfactions for me. I consider 2014 to be my starting year, because although I took pictures long before that, I had not yet found my personal style, my true passion.
In 2014, I had the chance to experiment and bring my imagination to life. In the beginning of the year I had set and written down some goals and although not all were achieved, I am very happy that most of them were, but more importantly that I actually tried! I realize now that one of the most important things in life is to let yourself try to follow what you are really passionate about, instead of just wishing you could do it. Yes, that is what 2014 has taught me: if you love something, then just get up and go do it. No excuses, no doubts, no fear. They are useless in the end. All that matters is that you do the best you can to be happy.
This year I decided to let myself be a photographer. I decided to use whatever tools I had at my disposal, to get out and look for locations, to let my imagination show me the way. It was probably the most liberating and rewarding experience of my life and I enjoyed every minute of it.
I created 22 pictures and I am proud for each and every one of them. I got to participate in two art festivals where I showed my pictures to the world outside the internet. I got to travel to a lovely island because of my photography. Most of all, I can now say that I am more in touch with my true self than I have ever been. And I am no longer afraid to let everyone see that.
This new year is going to be challenging, I can feel that already. Work is going to be more demanding and writing my master’s thesis is going to take up most of my time at least until the summer. Time spent on photography is shrinking, but not disappearing. I know now that doing this, is something I will never get enough of, so all I have to do actually, is to keep doing it.
I’d like to thank all of you that have shown your support these past months, either here or on facebook, flickr or 500px. Every click, like, or comment, feels like a hand that is reaching out to mine, to tell me that there is someone by my side. Thank you all for being there.
A tremendous amount of gratitude and all the love in the world go the man of my life, that has been my most dedicated fan, the best photographer’s assistant you can find and my favorite person in the whole wide world. Thank you for coming with me on my adventures, for your feedback, for understanding why I clutter our house with all sorts of stuff to use in future photoshoots and accepting that I will continue doing that.
I wish you all to have a great year, spend time with your loved ones, have fun, create and never stop chasing your dreams.
Hello everyone! I am happy to announce that my website is ready! Yay! It tool me some time, because I haven’t designed a wordpress site before, but I am very satisfied with the result. You might have noticed that I also have a new logo, which I also designed myself. Nothing fancy, but I like it! Please take a look at the website and tell me what you think. Your opinion matters!
I thought I’d make a seperate post to talk about my latest news and progress. Ever since I started this blog and conceptual photography, I feel like I’ve found my place in photography and to put it rather simply, I really love what I have been doing! It has been hard, mainly due to lack of time for shooting, but I am really proud of what I was able to create so far and of what I’ve learned in the process. I only have a few pictures to show, but my notebook is full of ideas for the future!
In the past few months I had a couple of features on sites like photofocus and phlearn which gave me the confidence to carry on. What was more surprising for me, was that my latest picture, “narcissus“, was selected and featured by 500px in a collection called “50 Creative Self-Portrait Ideas To Trump All Selfies“. I had nothing to do with the feature, which means someone chose it among others, and also I was not notified about the selection. Imagine the look on my face when I clicked on the link out of curiosity, only to scroll down and discover one of my own pictures in there! I saw that the collection had been posted two days before and the views count on my 500px account had gone way up! Today “narcissus” alone has over 10.000 views! That number is surreal to me and it makes me so proud of myself!
Sometimes I worry that sharing these little successes over and over on facebook or wherever, could be considered bragging. I hate to do that, I actually always avoid talking about myself and what I have accomplished. I prefer it when people discover that on their own, without me having to constantly self-advertise. But on the other hand, if I am proud of myself, why should I hide it?
I have also decided to take part in photography contests, both in Greece and abroad, mainly because I want to see where I really stand as a photographer. I am currently awaiting results from two greek contests and I am preparing my entries for others. It is an exciting, yet frightening time! I’d like to approach some galleries too, but I honestly don’t have the slightest idea how I would do that.
If I have to change one thing, that is the amount of time I dedicate to photography. It has not been easy for me to balance the dozen things I do everyday in a way that makes me satisfied. As a result I have been uploading one picture per month, which is not good enough for me. Now summer is here, so theoretically I will have more time at my disposal. I’ll give it my best!
My website is almost ready, so when I launch it, I will tranfer my blog there. Also I will start selling prints on my website, so I have to think about all kinds of stuff about that! Stay tuned for my next upload, which will be soon!
I had hoped that I would have another photo ready for upload this weekend, but I didn’t. I thought I should do something simpler than my previous photo, but I didn’t. Instead I chose to do another composite based on a concept that has been on my mind for years. I shot the pictures, then I shot them again and then a third time, since I could not get it right. Note that I had already began editing before I realized I had to do a third shot. Argh! Lesson learned. I should be more careful and prepared next time. The thing is I get carried away the moment I set to do anything that is exciting to me, so I just forget to think things through.
So after I got the right shots I started editing, trying to combine the different elements together. Right now I am at a point where I have already done much work and I still have much left to do. And of course I have to implement new tecnhiques in photoshop to get the result I want. This process is exciting, yet frustrating. I have the image in my head. How hard can it be to get it out? Well, it is. Very.
I am starting to feel disappointed. Maybe I am not as skilled as I thought I was. Maybe I am moving too fast. I am very close to abandoning this particular picture and moving on to something else. But then again I don’t like quitting. Maybe this is what you get for editing for five hours straight.
Pffff…. I am usually a very patient person. I guess what’s bugging me is that I can’t show you all those pictures that are in my head. Not yet.
Well a fresh start tomorrow might do the trick. After all, I set out to challenge myself. Well this is a challenge alright!
I really hope I have a new picture for you soon!
Hello all! This is my very first post in my brand new photograpy blog. I thought I should write some things about why I decided to make a blog.
Over the past few years I have been trying to grow as a photographer, always trying to learn and improve myself. But I reached a point where it was clear to me, that what was missing was my own personal style in phtography. I have decided I want to find that style by pushing myself to try new things and stepping out of my comfort zone.
This blog is my way to challenge myself to create new kinds of images, the kind that is more meaningful to me. I want to experiment, learn new things and try and show you all those images that are inside my head. I am not sure yet where this will take me, but I am really anxious to find out and share it with you.
I know I am bound to make many mistakes, but I hope that along the way I will find what I am looking for.
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