An International Archive
Off the Road is a personal documentary project about the elements between the past and the present which are composed of details that tell a story through the regional landscape. I search for elements in different routes which in some way are left behind on the side of the road. These details are personal statements which differ from each other, though functioning as a one common and living space.
— Orestis Seferoglou, Athens, Greece
Thanatophobia, or the human fear of death, is overweighted by the sense of belonging. The notion of homeland or home with its greater form (geographical or emotional). The word nostos is leading us to the creation of the word nostalgia. The ache of nostos. The pain of return. The defeat of death. But if the home is not defined then nostos is continuous and painful.
— Ioanna Chronopoulou, Athens, Greece
This series is a fictional, non-linear narrative that deals with notions of romance, a geographical stopping point, dystopian landscapes and Ancient Egyptian beliefs in the afterlife.
— Justin Clifford Rhody, Oakland, California, USA
I was asked to participate in a group show for emerging photographic artists in Melbourne, Australia. The working title for the show was: In Flux. I have included the conceptual brief below:
With a focus on calm states and the notion of being in flux this exhibition will involve work that allows for meditation and melancholy, a patient and experiential based collection that will encourage visitors to linger in the sensations of each work. The exhibition will give attention to water, movement, the notion of being fluid and the importance of breath.
I’m the House-Dude. The Stay-At-Home Dad. These days jumping in the car with a 3 year old and a bag full of camera gear isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. Kiss goodbye to any thoughts of quiet artistic pursuits. So these works were made with found materials and in still life tradition, assembled on the kitchen table close to the TV and Peppa Pig.
The initial interest for me within the In Flux theme was the depiction of “stillness” in a landscape context.
Ikebana, Sumi-e ink painting and turn of the century portraiture were the main influences. I was also interested in the traditional presentation of Chinese scroll paintings and the tokonoma viewing space.
These works continue my fascination for landscape. They remind that geology and flora are In constant evolutionary Flux.
Cultural shifts add to the Flux with the tree pictured (with needle like leaves) known by indigenous people as the Wayetuk or Gneering tree and most recently as the Drooping She-oak.
These images are for me unexpectedly autobiographical and simply represent that quiet space, somewhere away from Peppa Pig.
— Mat Hughes, Melbourne, Australia
I am primarily interested in documenting the everyday world around me, with a particular interest in landscapes featuring human interventions that visually activate their surroundings in strangely compelling ways. I am drawn to spaces that convey surreal or fictitious narratives, fortuitously photogenic environments that I try to carefully document rather than photographically exaggerate. Some of my work also explores the notion of place in the context of my dual citizenship of Australia and the UK. Often my Australian landscapes are shot under the soft light of overcast days, conditions more in keeping with my younger days in England – the muted tones portray an evenly balanced sense of place: an Australian scene with an “English” sky. Occasionally I will throw all of the above out of the window and experiment with something new.
— Chris Round, Sydney, Australia
Once Upon a Time on the Island of the Minotaur
Crete’s strategic location exposed the island to siege and piracy continuously during the centuries. This fact pushed local people to the mountainous interior of the island to protect themselves from the pirates’ assaults across the seaside.
More or less until the 1970’s, when tourism appeared here, the Cretans’ character, life and customs were much more related to the mountains rather than the sea. These photos are a kind of observation at the dyadic nature of the Minotaur’s island, this key-shaped mountain that was planted in the Mediterranean sea.
— Charalampos Kydonakis, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece
Welcome Guests is a series that I made between 2012 and 2013, which were the years that I lived in America for the first and the second time.
It’s a collection of pictures I took around the United States: documents and letters that I found and things that were given to me and I always had while I was traveling, such as a picture of Death Valley in California and a note that reminded me that I was really far away from home — or its concept.
It was mostly a way for me to play with photography, while I was working on my series Something is Missing, using an iPhone, 35mm cameras and a digital one. I was trying to work on feelings and emotions related to the instability of the act of always moving and the chaos of unsettled situations.
The experience you are suppose to have with these series is a sense of confusion and dislocation, through a representation of mundane and banal actions and experiences: there is a picture of a man cutting the grass, people who walks their dogs, a picture of a cup of coffee, one of a diner, a scanning of a picture of a typical American family house.
— Eleonora Agostini, Venice, Italy
Between June 2006 and June 2012 I returned to live in Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, where I had spent my childhood. I found myself living in the Medianías, an area with ancient agricultural tradition and where part of my upbringing took place. Each farmland had at least one pond or reservoir to capture rainwater for irrigation. Most of them are now obsolete, abandoned and highly dilapidated by the passage of time, bacterial action and weather conditions.
From the outside they are just ugly, functionally built structures. But peer inside and you will find these hidden landscapes: locked up lakes, frozen fjords, jungles, fortresses, meadows, forests… breathtaking beauty concealed to all behind their rough outer shell. A contained territory within another territory.
To me they are imaginary lands, psychological landscapes, projections and reflections of my own state of mind.
— Marisa Culatto, Hertford, United Kingdom
Land of Smiles is a quiet, surreal exploration of Thailand’s everyday architecture and landscapes.
I have spent a considerable amount of time in Thailand over the past five or so years (my wife is from Bangkok). Still, I remain an outsider and am fascinated by many aspects of the landscape that most Thais would never think twice about. The images featured here focus on the accidentally sculptural fluorescent bulb streetlights and nightscapes of rural Thailand.
Land of Smiles takes you on a walking tour in a dream-state. This is Thailand as few people will ever see it (especially in light of the political turmoil and chaos of the past decade).
— Chris Mottalini, Brooklyn, New York, USA
This series of photographs is born from my need to grant myself some moments in which to get out and explore the landscape in solitude for a few hours. Without a planned route or a clear destination, but with only the need for isolation and taking pictures, I always return to the same places over and over again by establishing a special relationship with them like a personal microcosm. The exploration and the relationship between place and memory become fundamental elements in the formation of a personal identity. The explored landscape is where I was born, grew up and in which I live: a part of the Padan Plains that extend from the countryside of “la bassa” (low plain) to the right banks of the River Po. In order to describe the different areas of land, I have adopted a distinctive look for each one. In the countryside I used tobacco sunset filters and as I get closer to the river the photos turn to a yellow-green color.
— Franco Monari, Modena, Italy
