Photography Exhibition
Nana Karamagkioli and Platon Rivellis
On Saturday, April 20, 2019, at 12:00, it will be inaugurated in the Vatti Hall of the Town Hall in Ermoupolis, Syros , a photography exhibition titled:
"Syros through the lens of two Neo-Syrian photographers"
In 1983, at the age of 38, I decided to abandon my law career to pursue Art, something I always wanted but had never dared to engage in beyond passive enjoyment. Photography was the most accessible medium for me to fulfill this desire, and I already had considerable knowledge about it. My friend and later wife, Nana Karamagkioli, was my first student. Subsequently, teaching art through the tools of photography and cinema became the center of my life, my greatest joy, and my livelihood.
The next step was to form a community of others who shared our views on art and photography and to support each other in practicing this art and deepening our understanding and enjoyment of its intellectual extensions. Thus, in 1988, the "Photographic Circle" association was born, with many good and dedicated photographers as members, significantly contributing to cultivating an artistically educated audience, a necessary condition for the flourishing of art in general.
A significant next step was our partial move from Athens, making Syros the center of our lives. We built a large house on the island, which serves not only as a residence but also as a fully equipped studio for screenings, discussions, printings, readings, etc. The idea was to gather friends and students for short seminars on photography or cinema and to live, during their brief duration, an ideal state of intellectual enjoyment among art, nature, and friendship. Since the house was completed in 2001, we have held more than 150 seminars, focusing on cinema in winter and photography in summer. We also established a branch as an autonomous association called "Photographic Circle of Syros."
I first encountered Syros at the age of 11 during a Jesuit summer camp in Delagratsia, but I grew to love it during my adolescence, making it a regular destination for my winter vacations. Therefore, it was not hard to choose it as my place of permanent residence among the Cycladic islands, a region I had chosen. I am also pleased that through the seminars, many students of all ages have come to know, love, visit regularly, and some even choose it as their holiday home and place of residence.
These two decisions, first changing professions and then the main place of residence, have improved my life for the better, and I am glad that Nana supported both. We travel to Athens and other parts of Greece for work reasons, as teaching, exhibitions, publishing, and all other activities necessary for practicing our art cannot be confined to our island. However, we always return to Syros with longing and consider it (and it is) our home.
We could have exhibited our photographs of many thematic directions, but we decided to show some that depict Syros and possibly reflect our love for it. My selections are more outward-looking, focusing on the island, while Nana's are more introspective, reflecting our home. This distinction refers not only to the subjects of the photographs, where in my case, it is the island and in Nana's the home, but also to our photographic approach, as my photos are more windows to the outside world, while Nana's are more mirrors to the inner world.
In the late 19th century, my namesake grandfather, of Corfiot descent, managed the English telegraph in Syros, the precursor to the Greek telecommunications organization OTE. He fell in love and married my grandmother, a graceful woman from Syros, Sperantza Kaloudi. I never got to meet them. But I am sure they would have been surprised and, I believe, happy, if someone had told them then that the time would come when their grandson bearing his name and his wife, of Thessaloniki descent, would also become Neo-Syrians.
Plato Rivellis
Curator of the exhibition
Plato Rivellis
Nana Karamagkioli
Opening
