Blossoming, Groningen 2020

Locations: Stadspark, Groningen, The Netherlands, March 2020.

Minolta 303si, (35-80mm lens). Kodak Gold 200, 35mm film.

For the Women who came before us

My body breaks,

it shatters into millions of pieces.

I carry the voices,

the screams,

the whispers,

the beggings,

of all the women who came before me.

I, too, feel their pain,

deep in my skin,

it goes through the flesh,

and reaches my bones.

Cold, it crushes me.

 

The pain lingers,

in the dark rooms of our bodies

it fades,

it withers and then stops,

leaving only remnants of suffering.

In its place

anything ugly

is transformed

to strength

and courage.

It breathes survival.

 

And the flowers in our heads

blossom,

out of coal and ash,

our saliva becomes sugar between our tongue,

washing over the bitterness in our mouths

and we swallow

all the false masculinity,

or whatever is left from it.

 

We are one.

Our bodies connect

through hundreds of years of abuse.

The pain in our bodies,

now a tree

with deep strong roots,

is capable of defeating anything.

 

Our mouths make sounds

as last!

they move,

they vibrate,

they tell the stories of pain.

 

Our voices create waves and waves and waves

of endless vibrations,

weaving webs of strong fibers,

ready to catch a sister who might fall.

Our voices are the voices of truth and pain,

and all that’s in between.

Our voices are strong,

they finally echo.

[I cry with them too]

21.10.2018


Photo: Nikon F75 (35-70mm). Kodak Ultra Max 400, 35mm film. Warns, Friesland, the Netherlands, July 2020.

Με τη γευση χαμομηλιου

Με τη γεύση χαμομηλιού στο στόμα

ερωτεύομαι,

τον εαυτό και τον κόσμο

ανασυντάσσω.

Στη βουή του μεγαλείου

αποζητώ το τίποτα

και το γιορτάζω

με χρυσάνθεμα και φως.

Πλέον τίποτα δεν χωράει σε κούτες.

Όλα (εκεί) ελεύθερα υπάρχουν,

ανήκουν σε όλους,

με τον ήχο του ήλιου

είναι_

Χωρίς αποσκευές

προχωρώ.

Αυτά που γεμίζουν τις τσέπες

ελαφραίνουν την ψυχή.

12. 2. 2017


Photo: Nikon F75 (28-100mm). Lomography Color Negative 800, 35mm film. Terschelling island, Friesland, the Netherlands. October 2019.

Thessaloniki in b&w infrared, GR 2017

Locations: These wonderfully contrasted pictures were taken a couple of years ago in Thessaloniki, Greece (December 2017). The intense contrast of the infrared b&w film is offering a dark and almost hopelessly dreary vibe to the pictures.

I decided to upload these picture now because I visited Greece during the Christmas holidays once again in 2020. Last time I was there during this festive period was three (!) years ago. This year, I also had the pleasure to revisit the “Umbrellas”, a landmark in the boulevard of Thessaloniki. Designed by George Zongolopoulos in 1997, this sculpture has been photographed countless times both by tourists and locals. Especially during this pandemic, I have noticed people walking up and down this boulevard, photographing again and again this amazing artwork. Just marvel at the wonderful contrast of the umbrellas against the overcast sky of that winter evening in 2017. My best friend is modeling for me in some of the pictures, while some fishermen posed ignorantly, hence their backs on the pictures. Notice how the Christmas lights seem to hang from the sky like a carpet made of little stars. I will always cherish those holidays. Happy New Year and hopefully in the future we can travel again and you can visit and photograph the “Umbrellas”.

Minolta dynax 7000i (AF 35-105mm). Washi Z 400/135 BW Film. 24 exp, 35mm film.

♠ Ode to the Now ♠

When our lives were happening,

we couldn’t stand still.

Now that our lives just are,

we cannot move forward.

 

Embracing Silence is all we can do,

embracing Stillness is all we can do,

embracing ourselves is all we can do,

embracing our weaknesses is all we can do,

 

for us,

our families,

the world,

now is the time to look inward

then gaze outward and

just BE.


Photo: Praktica MTL 5 (1.8/50). Kodak Gold 200, 35mm film. Groningen, the Netherlands. April 2020.

The sense of the self

In the sense of the self who lingers throughout a stretched life of possible or potential changes, I feel the forgotten need to blossom and rot at times of great self-consciousness, like moss itself; blooming next to moist and damp atmospheres, but rotting at the same time on the surfaces it decides to conquer. Whether blooming or rotting, this need is there, under all layers of suppressed dreams, prominent in the dark, pushing all the other needs deeper into the subconscious tunnels of the brain. What provokes this need to appear – mostly at random moments – are the times of blurred clarity I never managed to pull through. While I sing, I dive into the postcards I had once received and dream endlessly under pink skies, about the nomad life I always thought I was destined for.

The compromise in life speaks to me at times, it sings to me, those songs of experience we sometimes forget they exist. I dive and drown my own self into the emptiness of life, into the vanity of expectations. And since expectations are hard to murder, they keep transforming into nasty birds, ready to inhabit any free and pure thought jumping out of us. Because the me becomes an us, and our minds interwind under the moonlights of our lives, under all those false images projected by the societies we never agreed on growing into.

Deadly thoughts of escapism could be liberating, but sometimes poisonous for the healthy mind, we state we own. Building up a life, under the shadows of architectural monsters – our societies – is not healthy by any form of nature; it is destructive and pointless, it is empty. Empty of the life itself, of emotions and soothing words created under inspiration. The gap between the life we have and the life we dream about should not exist. It should be trivial, small, and insignificant. It should not have a voice or a shape, it should not even be discussed. Because the true nature of things derives from real freedom to act, dream, create and be, not who we want to be, but who we truly are.


Photo: Praktica MTL 5 (1.8/50). Kodak Gold 200, 35mm film. Groningen, the Netherlands. April 2020.

Refuge

Layers upon layers of restlessness,

upon layers of unburnt stars,

of overheated supernovas

and overflowing dark matter.

 

Poetry,

is my only refuge now.

 

I can’t look myself in the mirror anymore,

no reflection is looking back.

Eyes are dried out – forgotten –

almost like dying stars

we only see in our dreams.

 

The rooftop has fallen

on us

and our dreams,

it has ‘2020’ carved on it

and its debris attacks the silence

while we laugh at our own jokes.

 

If only I had time to read more.

If only I had time to watch more movies.

If only I had time to catch up on my to-do lists.

Now there is time,

but no soul to put into it.

 

The sky is dark,

like the inside of my room.

Words escape my mouth

but bounce back at the walls around me

and enter my mouth again.

 

No sounds,

No world.

 

My jaw is broken now,

the lines are blurred,

and stars flicker above me

in the night sky.

They remind me that life

is like Silence:

You fee it the most

when it is the only thing you hear.


Photo: Nikon F75 (28-100mm). LomoChrome Purple, 100-400, 35mm film. Groningen, the Netherlands. May 2020.

Purple Bike Rides, Groningen 2020 (Lomo Purple 400)

Locations: Biking around Hoornseplas, Stadspark, Groningen, the Netherlands. May 2020.

Nikon F75 (28-100mm). LomoChrome Purple, 100-400, 35mm film.

 

De Onlanden, Groningen 2020 (Ektar 100)

Locations: De Onlanden, Groningen, the Netherlands, May 2020.

Minolta Dynax 7000i (AF 35-105mm). Kodak Ektar, 100 ISO, 35mm film.

The Marvellous Colors of Kodak Ektar 100

Locations:  Schöhsee (Plön), Görnitz (Grebin), Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, June 2019 –  Tsagarada, Pelion, August 2019 – Kipos village, Kozani, Greece, July 2019.

Minolta Dynax 7000i (AF 35-105mm). Kodak Ektar, 100 ISO, 35mm film.