Photographs by Nana Karamagkiole
Anniversary Photography Exhibition
for the thirty years of the Photographic Cycle (1988-2018)
January 23 – February 18, 2018
Booze Cooperativa Gallery – Kolokotroni 57, Athens
On Tuesday, January 23, 2018, to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the "Photographic Cycle" association, a photography exhibition featuring portraits of members of the Circle taken by Nana Karamagkiole over these thirty years is inaugurated. The exhibition is complemented by photographic memories from significant events that have marked this journey.
Photocyclic Portraits
In 1988, with Nana Karamagkiole and some friends and students, we founded the Photographic Cycle, of which I became president and she vice president. A few years later, the president married the vice president, and since then - and to this day - we have remained president, vice president, and spouses.
Nana was literally my first student in 1981, on whom I tested my first teaching steps. She never stopped photographing - with significant results - but she never forgot that she started photography for fun and joy. With consistency, she often photographed in situations where we others (unfortunately because we took ourselves too seriously), did not bring out a camera, or even take it with us. Thus, after every seminar, excursion, or trip, we all enjoyed portraits that Nana had taken of us, whose quality most of the time surpassed just a well-taken commemorative photo, with the additional advantage that Nana, either out of kindness or positive instinct, improved our real image.
So, we thought this year to celebrate entering the 31st year of the Circle's life with a series of portraits of members of the Circle, old and new, that Nana has taken over time, to see on them the passage of time, to reminisce about more carefree times, and to emphasize through this kaleidoscope of faces the continuity and duration of the association. In recent years, the opportunities (and possibilities) for excursions and trips have decreased and so have the portraits. Nonetheless, we thought it would be interesting to accompany the photocyclic portraits with some collections of small photos, taken by various photographers, that would remind us of similar activities, trips, excursions, seminars, or exhibition inaugurations.
The choice of Booze as the exhibition space was not random or arbitrary. First, because the nature of the entertainment space matches the festive sense we feel for the Circle's thirtieth anniversary, and secondly, because in the old Booze, before its expansion, we held our first two group exhibitions, in 1989 and 1991.
Thirty Years of "Circle" (1988-2018)
When we were young, summers seemed endless. As we grew up, we were surprised to find July strangely close to September. The same happened with the decades of the "Circle". In 1998, at the first anniversary exhibition at the Cyprus House, we felt that the "Circle" already had a long past. Now that we are closing the third decade and entering the fourth, it feels like we just celebrated twenty years yesterday. One must admit that it is neither common nor easy to keep a group of people (with its ups and downs, of course), whose cohesive element is not some interest but simply a common joy and desire. If we were a shop, we would write (proudly) under our sign "Established in 1988". We have overcome and digested economic difficulties, personal egos, technological revolutions, along with the natural fatigue that comes with time.
The notes written for previous anniversary exhibitions (which one can read on the Circle's website) analyze in detail the journey and contribution of the "Circle" to photography. What we can add at the close of thirty years is that the quality and variety of photography made today at the "Circle" is undoubtedly greater than ever, that we have significantly exploited the spread of new media, as evidenced by our presence on the internet and our frequent digital communication, that we have easily adopted new technologies, that we have opened up (to some extent) to the periphery, and that we continued, despite economic adversities, the effort to organize group exhibitions and produce photographic albums. And above all, we have not lost our spirit and curiosity. So, under the sign of our "shop," let us write, "for the decades to come."
Plato Rivellis
