PHOTOGRAPHY AND INTERPRETATION

Photography is uniquely powerful, more than any other art form to draw us into a solitary discourse with the work. Photography has the power to tell epic stories, express deep emotions and drive a message in the most forceful manner; even if it appears to be innocent and naively representational of reality. 

AD for Safara
Model: Sifuni Kajiru
Makeup: Marlet Aguilar / Makeup Artist

© SPIRO / Photographer
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WARNING: This image is copyrighted and may not be used without permission and credit. When authorized, this image may only be used as a SHARED POST from my professional page. All other options will be immediately reported and removed.
No edited version or any other use of this image is permitted unless authorized in writing.
Please inbox me for details.

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BACK TO WORK - January 1, 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE


It is said in the Greek tradition that what you occupy your time with on New Year's day, will be what will occupy you the rest of the year. Marlet Aguilar / Makeup Artist and I did this today.

Makeup: Marlet Aguilar / Makeup Artist
Photo: © SPIRO / Photographer
______________________________________
WARNING: All my photos are copyrighted and may not be used without permission and credit. When authorized, this image may only be used as a SHARED POST from my professional page. All other options will be immediately reported and removed.
No edited version or any other use of this image is permitted unless authorized in writing.
Please inbox me for details.

PORTRAIT - FACES OF MEXICO

On a very recent trip to Mexico, I fell in love with the people. Mexico, like Canada, is comprised of different socioeconomic demographics. Often, the nicest people are the ones who have not been altered by the materialistic drive most of us have in Canada.
Even in their relative poverty, many of the people I encountered were genuine, kind, and loving. They were open to having me photograph them when it was determined that I wasn't a threat. Often however, they shied away from the camera, unwilling to be the subject in an often negatively portrayed message. I tried to make them aware that my intentions were honourable and that I wouldn't abuse the privilege of seeing them through my lens.
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I encountered this wonderful lady when I was traveling with my fiancee and her mom through the mountains, heading from Oaxaca City, to Mazunte. In this 7 hour drive up and then down the mountain roads, in stomach churning twists and turns, our small mini-bus hugged the road with one tire constantly inches away from the cliff edge, making the ride an experience of existential proportions, something these hardy locals consider normal. The thought of eating during this 7 hour rollercoaster ride, was not a thought I wanted to entertain; similarly I could not sleep because my eyes were glued to the window with terror but also with appreciation for the landscape. Speeding along on wet roads cut out of the rainforest above the clouds, had the effect of aesthetic humility.

At one of our few, quick stops, I stepped out of the bus to stretch my tight, tension-filled muscles, when this lady came up with pears in hand, wanting to sell them to the passengers. Immediately I noticed her gentle kindness and I admired her simple, weathered beauty. It reminded me of my youth in Greece, seeing the many faces in the market and the workers my grandparents hired during the olive picking season, even the weathered look my grandmother had right before her passing. There was something very familiar in the way she moved, smiled, and it made me happy.
My fiancee told me to photograph her, and proceeded to ask her if she was willing. She handed the lady a couple of coins and explained that we didn’t want the pairs but I could take her photo?
Even in her poverty, I could tell she was hesitant in accepting payment for nothing tangible exchanged, but my smile confirmed that I wasn’t a threat and the payment was a token gesture of appreciation.
I took three photos and thanked her, when she said something I didn’t catch but I smiled and nodded anyway. My fiancee reacted first, before others on the bus, who were seeing all this unfold.
“She said she’s ugly, and doesn’t understand why you wanted to take her photo”.
I was saddened to think that this poor, wonderful soul felt this way. I was already leaning in to do it when I heard my fiancee say “hug her”. I opened my arms wide, and said “Bella”. She was hesitant in her approach but hugged me, thanking me. I held her and I could feel her body relax in my arms. I wish I could hug her again and give her this photo.

I didn’t get her name, the bus was leaving and I had to get back on it.

Photo: © SPIRO / Photographer

WARNING: All my photos are copyrighted and may not be used without permission and credit. When authorized, this image may only be used as a SHARED POST from my professional page. All other options will be immediately reported and removed.
No edited version or any other use of this image is permitted unless authorized in writing.
Please inbox me for details

AESTHETICS AND THE IMPERFECT OBSERVER

“Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
Remy de Gourmont
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Photography is by its very nature, a crafty lie, told in the sincerest way possible. If we consider that it is a slice of reality as represented by someone who has edited the time, place, perspective and conditions in which this occurred, one comes away with the feeling that a photograph is entirely subjective and made to represent an impossible reality, since by its very nature it is a misrepresentation of that reality through filtering it in specific terms.
While this is true, the esoteric truth however is that photography is a view beyond the reality it pretends to represent. A crafty lie is in fact a grander truth in the paradoxical essence of our relationship with this ideal vision.  

I have always said that photography is most closely related to sculpture than it is to painting. Every chisel mark, every hit of the hammer and weathering of time is visible; every enduring experience is shown, illustrated and featured for all to see. Light wraps around the surface of the work, always changing it, always in motion and constantly forcing it to adapt to the environment, much like we do as we pass unaware through life. 

Sculpture is a selectively chosen moment in time that depicts the most ideal version of the subject. Sculpture is a pure definition of beauty as the sculptor wants us to understand it; it is the artist’s imposed ideals that we see and appreciate as our own. Sculpture is the naked reality of endurance through time and space and we are left naked in its gaze, looking and being looked at all at once. 

I have always had a devout adoration for sculpture that I have approached my work as a photographer from this starting point. I have considered the problem of photographic representation to be a great responsibility and the moral dilemma inherent in this responsibility is obvious. I believe that what you say as an artist must be warranted, must have value and must refer directly to the paradoxes of representing a selected moment, perspective and light to depict a grander sense of your subject, one that transcends the limit of the immediate, static view. 

As sculpture is the ideal representation of the subject, so too is photography. It is from this starting point that my work finds meaning for me, especially through portraiture, as I hope it finds meaning for the viewer. While I am working, I want my subjects to speak to me, to tell me their stories, without words, without actions; by simply being there, quietly; gazing back at me and the viewer with the depth of their being, not the surface of their reflection through my lens. I am in constant search as I work, of the moment when the viewer and the viewed become accomplices in the paradox of their relationship through my representation.
The ideal relationship between subject and viewer is when the viewer identifies with the subject, seeing both the frailty and enduring timelessness in that relationship; appreciating the similarities they share more then the differences between them. I am in constant search of the moment when the physical relationship of my subject and the viewer becomes blurred and unnoticeable and I hope it is clear in my work that though I am working in a purely physical realm, my intent is to transcend that physicality in favour of the more timeless qualities of the esoteric convergence through unity of the experiential relationship and physical proximity with the work.

I did my studies in photography before the digital revolution changed the art forever. I was trained to be a good technician. I have learned however, that being technically perfect, often detracts from the overall message that the work is conveying. I believe that like us mere mortals, photographs have a life of their own and the most enduring images bare the signature errors and faults of the creator. What is important to me is less the technical aspect than the message of resonance I am able to establish between my viewer and the work. I much prefer to know that the viewer has connected with the work on a personal level and has seen beauty in the ideal representation of the limited reality I am presenting. 

Though I don’t expect the viewer to be aware of it, I hope my work is a testament to the finite mortality of our being as it is the timelessness of presence; of ideal beauty through the hard, unfiltered, though highly selective reality; of the ideal perspective through the real representation.
I hope that my viewer will come away from the work with an unconscious questioning of their own mortality and resilience; with a feeling that contradictions are not illogical and that our perceptions of beauty are limited to our experience and most importantly that they can change, adapt and evolve as we evolve continuously. 

I hope more than anything, that the viewer sees a bit of themselves in the work and that the relationship between the subject and the viewer is one of likeness.

Spiro Polichronopoulos
March 19, 2015,
Just south of Ottawa, Ontario 

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Photos: © SPIRO / Photographer

WARNING: All my photos are copyrighted and may not be used without permission and credit. When authorized, this image may only be used as a SHARED POST from my professional page. All other options will be immediately reported and removed.
No edited version or any other use of this image is permitted unless authorized in writing.
Please inbox me for details.
spiro.photo@gmail.com

SHARING IS CARING - EXPLORING THE PROCESS

PHOTOS FIND MEANING IN A LABOUR OF LOVE 

I have come to the realization that just posting images is not enough. Sharing with people should involve more than just the final image. It does not reflect the work that I put into all I do and it makes everything look easy because the challenges faced with each project and each photo are hidden behind the pretense that it is simple.
Like everything else, there is nothing simple about photography, especially when the final effect has to be ON, always. There is often a lot of research and deliberation before I start shooting. Finding and assessing various inspirational images, music, poems, ideas and anything that will spark insight into the approach I take with each project is the first matter of business.
In my blog I will try to bring together the various aspects of effort before I pick up my cameras and set up my lights. In effect, I want to share more of the labour of love that goes into the work because this labour of love is the essence of the work and its inner mechanics of soul.
Of course, my first blog post is dedicated to my one and only, the light in my work and the extraordinary artist that fuels my inspiration and passion to exceed myself with each project: Marlet Aguilar.


Cross referencing my Pro Facebook page with this blog:

https://www.facebook.com/SPIRO-Photographer-1398669277094667/

THE GREAT MARLET AGUILAR - MAKEUP ARTIST

FIRST POST - Dedicated to my beautiful wife, Marlet Aguilar

For those who know me and my work, you are used to seeing a lot of studio beauty photos. You also know that the inspiration and expertise is solely attributable to Marlet Aguilar, my most trusted, most relied upon collaborator. Her work graces photo after photo of my work with pure love and an artistry that's uncommon as it is beautiful.

In this beauty inspired portrait of her, I wanted to take the studio to the great outdoors. It has been surprisingly mild for mid December and with the temperatures fluctuating in the high single and low double digits (celsious), I packed my battery powered strobe light with a small softbox onto my ATV to one of the open fields, behind our home.

The sun was starting to set and the colours were just right behind her. I lit her with one softened strobe from the left side, keeping my 100mm lens at 4.5 aperture to blur the background of the tree-line. The result allowed the sun to bring the highlights out in her hair as the face was illuminated by the single strobe, balanced just slightly higher than the background setting to give me that beautiful skin glow.

I am definitely going to be doing more outdoor beauty work, hoping not to clash too much with the perfectionist attitude that Marlet maintains in our other work. I am feeling the need to explore beauty out of the total control of the studio. I want to introduce a bit of chaos in this type of work, something that terrifies Marlet because she insists on perfection achieved only through total control as we can achieve in the studio.

Please comment, let us know your opinions, your impressions and suggestions.

Photo: © SPIRO / Photographer
________________________
WARNING: All my photos are copyrighted and may not be used without permission and credit. When authorized, this image may only be used as a SHARED POST from this page. All other options will be immediately reported and removed.
No edited version or any other use of this image is permitted unless authorized in writing.
Please inbox me for detail
spiro.photo@gmail.com

Marlet Aguilar:
https://www.facebook.com/Marlet-Aguilar-Makeup-Artist-669804569806839/?fref=ts