There is something very noble, and yet tragic, in resisting one’s fate: in confronting nature, the grandiosity of the world and at the same time the nullity of one’s existence. A mother and her children standing against the wind on top of a majestic rock, a man dragging a chair in the middle of a burnt landscape.
Panos Kokkinias’ works, with their existential qualities stand untouchable in time, and yet so incredibly contemporary for the international photography scene and for Greece. In his images, which stand on their own narrating their single story and as series of the same thread of thought, people’s presence functions as a medium of the narrative and also as a tool of subverting the initial structure of the natural environment. Man represented on both levels simultaneously, as pawn and as creator.
In these detailed staged compositions which emphasize on color, the Greek scenery –unspoiled or destroyed- works as the background and the protagonist. It all depends on the distance one takes, literally and metaphorically, in order to participate in each story and allow it to progress from visual to visible.

Coordination: Vangelis Ioakimidis, Alexandra Athanasiadou