Λιγο Αργοτερα

Τη φωνή σου ακούω

έξω από το παράθυρο.

Με παρακαλά να σου ανοίξω,

με ικετεύει να σε αφήσω μέσα.

Ο αέρας χτυπά δυνατά τα τζάμια.

Καμιά γη,

κανένα χώμα,

δεν είναι αρκετά να σε κρατήσουν.

Βλέπω τη μορφή σου,

δυνατή και αγέρωχη,

όπως μου έμαθες να ζω.

Τ’ αστέρια λάμπουν πάνω

από το κεφάλι μας.

Κάποια σύννεφα στριφογυρίζουν

στον ορίζοντα,

σε μπλε και γκρι καμβά,

αποφασίζουν να ρίξουν βροχή,

να ξεπλύνουν τα δάκρυα

από τον τάφο σου.

Ο ουρανός ανοίγει,

από πάνω μας

πέφτουν κεραυνοί στα κυπαρίσσια.


Photo: Nikon F75 (AF 35-70mm). Kodak Portra 400, 35mm film. Stadspark, Groningen, the Netherlands, February 2021.

LomoChrome Metropolis (100-400), GR 2021

Locations: Kastra, Ano Poli, Seich Sou forest, Nea Paralia, Thessaloniki Greece, December-January 2020-2021.

Minolta dynax 7000i (AF 35-105mm). LomoChrome Metropolis 100-400 ISO, 35mm film.

Heather Fields, Dwingelderveld National Park (NL)

Locations: Dwingelderveld National Park, Drenthe, The Netherlands, September 2020.

Minolta dynax 7000i (AF 35-105mm). Fujifilm Provia 100 F 135/36, 35mm film.

Blossoming, Groningen 2020

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

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

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.

⛰️The mountain meditation⛰️

I am a mountain,

tall and silent

I stand,

while seasons change

and the weather rages.

 

I am a mountain

steady with trees,

rocks at my core,

and water flowing at my feet.

 

I withstand change

and I celebrate it

when it takes over

everything around me.

But it does not affect me

– it can’t.

 

I am a mountain,

solid and tall,

that sits proud

for thousands of years

and will continue

standing and rooting

for more years to come.


Photo: ‘View from a mountain’. Nikon N4004s (35-70mm). Kodak Gold 200, 35mm film. Thessaloniki, March 2016. Credits to Nikos Grivas. 

When in Warns, Friesland 2020, NL

Locations: The basic location where I took these pictures is in Warns, Friesland, in July 2020. Since I used this camera and film during the summer, you will also find some colorful images from biking around the Hoornsemeer lake in Groningen, taken in August 2020. Also, two pictures are taken during my first time picking blueberries in Wapse. In the Netherlands you can visit picking gardens, such as the Zeldenrust in Wapse, where you can pick your own blueberries! You take all the time you need with the picking process and when you are done, they weigh your buckets and you pay per kilo. It was a wonderful experience, even though there were not many blueberries left in the gardens! Needless to say, we ate from our blueberry batch a lot, till a couple of months ago!

Nikon F75 (35-70mm). Kodak Ultra Max 400, 35mm film.

♣ Το Φθινοπωρινο ♣

Τον Οκτώβριο,
τα κλαδιά στα κόκκινα
λάμπουν στον ήλιο.

 

Τον Νοέμβριο,
τα κλαδιά στα κίτρινα
πέφτουν στο χώμα.

 

Το φθινόπωρο,
το αναποφάσιστο
που μας ηρεμεί.

 

Καμιά γιορτή
αμέτρητα τα φύλλα
κανένα γέλιο.

 

Κίτρινο χώμα,
πού πήγαν οι αγκαλιές;
Δύει ο ήλιος.


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.