Kostis Argyriadis – DD/MM/YYYY

Review by Gerhard Clausing •

To interpret the trivialities of everyday life is not an easy task, but it is an interesting challenge. In contemplating such subjects, personal recollections that are stored in each person’s memory will be applied to what is seen, and some cultural understanding may also come in handy. Thus the work of Kostis Argyriadis, as collected in this very interesting photobook from Greece, is a pleasant surprise for me, the viewer, and should be interesting for you as well.

As we look at these images, we find that nothing is obvious at all. Intense and repeated viewing of the photographs seems indicated. In the process of re-viewing of these images, we find that the viewer’s imagination meets the photographer’s imagination; at the same time this process calls for an individual interpretation of what is presented.

Argyriadis uses a variety of techniques to stimulate our curiosity: his dreamworld photographs exhibit selected sharpness and unsharpness, motion blur, subdued lighting, camera shake, long exposures, to name just a few of his techniques. Traces of objects and people – each image invites us to apply our own experience as we deepen our viewing. This shared experience becomes a study of ubiquitous elements: Did we ourselves perhaps sit on that bench before? Is that official-looking building one we have visited? Is that a beach area where we ourselves have spent a vacation? Does that snowstorm represent a struggle we ourselves might have been faced with in the past? Occasionally we see the shadow of the photographer, like a selfie we might have taken.

Naturally (or perhaps somewhat unnaturally), many of the shapes are ambiguous, as are the individuals depicted, as well as the situations we are shown. This allows optimal projection for the viewer, especially since hardly any of the individuals in the photographs are recognizable. Like the roaming cats of Greece, we meander through a dreamy environment not unlike what might have confronted us before, looking for sustenance.

The magic of the work of Kostis Argyriadis can be found in both its uniqueness and its universality. It is as if he is causing us to look into a mirror, and what we see is time passing right in front of us. As I’m writing these lines, I’m sitting in a hotel lobby in the historical part of Nafplio, Greece, and Argyriadis’ work connects me with this very moment in time. Thanks to the images in this photobook, I am trying to imagine all that has gone on before in this part of the world, what is here now, and I am wondering what is yet to come. Everyday realities are like an ancient palimpsest manuscript squeezing itself on top of other texts that have occupied the same space, before they were scraped away because of the high cost of parchment. Simultaneously, immediacy demands our attention and interpretation, and the temporal happenings are hazy yet precious. Growth and decay, progress and uncertainty exist all at once. As Weill and Anderson expressed it in one of their songs, “the days dwindle down to a precious few …” Perhaps there is a warning overlaid on these images, and then again, that interpretation may only be a temporary thought, just a fleeting feeling.

This very intelligent photobook, laid out in an optimal sequence, well printed on matte paper with an open binding to allow complete viewing, is a pleasure to contemplate again and again; congratulations on this coherent project that stimulates and raises many ideas!

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Gerhard Clausing, Editor of the PhotoBook Journal, is an author, photographer, and synthographer from Southern California.

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Kostis Argyriadis – DD/MM/YYYY

Photographer: Kostis Argyriadis (born and lives in Thessaloniki, Greece)

Text: Kostis Argyriadis

Language: English

Softback, with illustrated dust cover, sewn with open binding; 6.75 x 8.75 inches; 17 x 22 cm; printed by Fotolio SA, Greece; ISBN 978-618-00-4142-2

Photo Editors: Kostis Argyriadis, Yorgos Yatromanolakis

Text Editor: Michael Webber

Design: Yorgos Yatromanolakis

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Articles and photographs published in the PhotoBook Journal may not be reproduced without the permission of the PhotoBook Journal staff and the photographer(s). All images, texts, and designs are under copyright by the authors and publishers.