Travel photography with an anthropocentric approach has caught my interest early on in my passion for photography. Observing people, how they move, how they stand in a space, how they react, how they “fill” a space with their aura has always been something that magnetized me. With photography you essentially trap a moment forever. The art of photography gives you in a way the ability to produce something timeless. It gives you the opportunity to turn the folklore of a place, the history, the words and the story of a person into an image.
Being born and raised in Greece, I started an anthropological “investigation”, called Marabou, using my photography as the main research tool. Marabou is mainly focused on the Islands of Aegean. The Aegean probably chose me and not me. From a very young age I traveled to the Aegean islands and heard stories about pirates with mystical customs, and inconceivable stories from World War II. Those stories and experiences are etched in my memory.
The core of the Aegean is its people, and all their stories that compose the Aegean Sea. They are the people you meet by chance on the streets of the islands and yet your gaze is fixed on them, like every sign and line on their face reflecting their life on the islands. Miscellaneous people with a common characteristic; the love for their place, the passion for its preservation, and the effort and the mood for life!
My goal is to visit all the little civilized islands of the Aegean. There are 78 in total and I visit them in sections. I have started with the Cyclades, the Northeast Aegean and I will continue with the Dodecanese and the Sporades. In many of these places I know people and stories and I start with them. Elsewhere I read books, newspapers and articles about the island and look for people to tell me some of these stories that are often part of them. Other times, especially in winter, I go to cafes where most seniors gather and sit with them listening to stories and asking them about their life adventures. It also happens that I set out on trips based on the festivities that take place at different parts on each island in an effort to better understand the way of life of the inhabitants in each place and the key rituals and festivities that are part of their culture.
