Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls
Panos Skoulidas
Wandering in Greece
…I lived half of my life in Grecolandia…& half in Los Angeles….
Half of my life i was dressed up in sheep-skin and half of my life in plastic…
Half of my life i was riding donkeys and half driving wild mustangs…
Half of my life i was staring mustaches and half staring at platinum blond highlights..
It wasn’t curiosity that brought me back…im not here anyways but i’m not there either…
Homer made it back to Penelope..Made it back to Ithaca…
but Homer was a lier in the end..He lied to please the king…
but Kavafis…ahhh Kavafis told the truth…Its all about the travel..not the destination…
it’s the doomed , the holy trip to that imaginary Ithaca…the El Dorado does not exist…
it’s the search for the El Dorado that counts…
When i left from the “sheep” city to find my “el dorado” i made it to the “plastic” city…
Half of my life i was believing in Homer…
Half of my life later i realized that there are no El Dorados..Its just a vast endless ocean ahead..
that leads nowhere but …but im not afraid anymore..i can accept it now..im not scared..
Things dont change..but we do..
Almost a month ago my boat decided to revisit…
Highway 61 Revisited as my good friend Bob Dylan said…
Above (essay) is what i saw..how i got connected with Grecolandia in the period of a month…
I’m riding a tired donkey once again…
I left my pirate ship back in venice beach to take a break…
Now im on the fast lane of that Grecolandia Highway 61 , speeding…on a slow donkey..
Reuniting, reconnecting with my family…
whats not to love?
Enjoy…because i dont know how long my “donkey” will last…
Bio
Panos Skoulidas bio,
or
the story of “Till Eulenspiegel”…
…According to the tradition, he was born in Grecolandia around 1300. He travelled through the Holy Roman Empire (Americanlandia , especially Northern US, but also the Low Countries, Bohemia, and Grecolandia. He is presented as a trickster or fool who played practical jokes on his contemporaries, exposing vices at every turn, greed and folly, hypocrisy and foolishness…With Eulenspiegel’s death occurs the entry of the embodied trickster-animus into the medium of things spiritual, the form of existence of pure spirituality so that the soul has seen through itself by way of its own spirituality and knows itself as living spiritual life: Eulenspiegel is still alive.The literal translation of the High German name “Eulenspiegel” gives “owl mirror”, two symbols that identify Till Eulenspiegel in crude popular woodcuts. However, the original Low German is believed to be ul’n Spegel, meaning “wipe the arse”.
Related links:
picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos
web.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos/Panoblogomania
web.me.com/innerspacecowpanos/VENICE_BEACH/ORGY_IN_VENICE
homepage.mac.com/innerspacecowpanos/iMovieTheater17
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4sXRxs_8qg
Editor’s note:
Comments are wide open on this essay.. Panos will surely jump in whenever he can..
Many thanks… david alan harvey
Fish swim birds fly
“‘Captain, shake off this trance, and think of home-if home indeed awaits us.’”-Homer, “The Odyssey”
One thing that i have always loved about Panos work, whether it was Venice, or Dark Kids, or Road Trips or now Wandering in Greece is that every story told feels as if it were a journey, the distance may be far or wife but the journey is always about discovery, both sad and funny….and what i love best about this is that it is unmistably Panos: filled with humour and also a melancholic love for what is there, before each of us….the joy, above all, and the childlike laughter of the glorious and absurd chunks of what is around…this aint the greece of homer but it is the Greece of you and your family and the real Greece…and that always means the most to me….
so, Zeus dropped a pigeon to bring your good luck and to wing us forward :))…i LOVE #14, those cars like the Aegean armies about to leave for Troy….the gorgeous 10, with the boy in the toilet, which in many ways is a brilliant self portrait :))…and complex and family-chimed history of that multiple frame reflection 7 and Hitchcock beaming over all of us, our own Vertigo…..the dogs asleep waiting Odysseus as the Suitors storm the ground….
so much to dig here…and i have no time to write more, but something very simple:
you have alighted upon a land lighted up by the absurd beauty of home….your home, your home inside, that over all those damn toils, made for something shining…not armour, not charriot, not spear….
more word sin a couple of hours
BIG HUGS BIG HUGS
BOB
Nice , so which one is Civi?
You are quite the street photographer, dude. Love it. Just added your rss feed to my inbox.
funny thing..is i did include a Civi’s photo..but it was cut…in the final cut….
“‘Captain, shake off this trance, and think of home-if home indeed awaits us.’”-Homer, “The Odyssey”
————————-
INDEED..bob…indeed
yes
a
journey…
thru your eyes…
gentle
and
softer..
kitties
and
flash!!!!
princess
and
layers….
birds
and
morning light…..
your visual diary…
thanks for sharing….
xo
***
love the intimacy, especially 18…. looks like a still from a film….. wx
9 does it for me.
Panos – congrats to be on the frontpage!
Your pictures are a celebration of life.
Biggest Hug!
That last pic.. that’s home.. how can you say ‘no’? You can leave, but will have to come back…
Hi Panos and congratulations !
Since the departure, I love your work, there is something special in your photos, as D’Agata, the photography is your personal diary and you are always honest and sincere… I like very much your present humor which I had not felt before, I love the pigeon, the dog and the police! I recognize your niece but where is Maria?!!
Xo to all the family, audrey
P,.S.:
the pictures i love best (other than the brilliantly funny Army-cars at the sea (14) and the portrait of Civi in the bathroom (9)) are the great great shadow beauty pictures:
2: all the pain in the world conveyed in the shadow on the grandmother’s face: that is Penelope, isn’t it…
7: time and place of things
18:…chatter light…
but again, it is impossible to see a panos essay whithou seeing the fully humour and celebration of light (u steel harvey’s flash in a bottle for 19??) :))))
and hitchcock rules!…pigeons dining on dinner too :))
raise high the roofbeam :))
running
b
damn…the last two weeks were quite amazing imho… thank u boys & girls…
bob…totally honestly..civi is not in the 9th photo or any of the above…Civi was cut…by the editor….
i wouldnt lie…
yes..i admit…i shot a whole series of photos using whiskey glass in front of pop up flash..100% completely stolen Harvey technique..i do admit that…
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=tr&u=http://www.fotografevi.com/&ei=nwSNS53uNoWW_Qbj4pXEAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CA0Q7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfotografevi%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_enUS345US346
FOTOGRAFEVI english translated version
that cat photo !
Bob, yes the Army-cars at the sea are very funny, I love it too :))
Love the opening shot of the Dancing Pigeon!
Im really sorry Panos/All, but these are just not very good. If we are to be honest here, as honest as we are with the work of people we DONT know, then THE WORK must stand up to scrutiny all by itself. In my opinion this work fails to do that on almost every level. Sure there is an element of narrative going on, but it is more than offset by the lacklustre imagery and poor technical aspects of the work overall.
Feel free to disagree, but know that this is not about panos, its purely my response to the work presented. Honesty is everything.
Big hugs for what you have achieved panos but you can do way better than this.
PEACE
John
John…plz feel free to tell it like you feel …as you should…still i want to meet up & burn that pub..
;)
plus..this is Burn’s nature..whoever gets exposed here..needs to feel that heat……….ouchhh
;)
panos. Absolutely!! Earliest I can get away from london is end of may’ish..but I am seriously looking at a road trip across east europe into greece and turkey in a 4×4. You would be a more than welcome passenger for any part of that journey if it happens.
John.
lets do it….;)
Eva..yes…the last pic…thats “home”… thats “love” for me…my favorite…human being….
:)))))))))))))))))))))
Sorry, Panos, but I have to agree with John Gladdy. For all your quirky bravado, unrestricted access, and free imagination (all of which are good things), these photos seem really lazy. There are some in which the elements are beginning to coalesce in an Alex Webb sort of way, like #4 (dogs and cops) and #16 (kid in back of truck), but I am quite certain that these are not the best photos of the those situations — what do the surrounding frames look like?
I do like the narrative impulse and the “images a la sauvette” feeling about them, but the offhandedness here isn’t doing you any favors.
John G. + Panos = 1 Class Act
Still love that kitten shot… :-)
Preston..:)))
u can try your own edit (view all those surrounding frames here)
part1:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIFTIFS?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLn1qnSp-S2Iw#
part2:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIF18?authkey=Gv1sRgCP2vg7qtn8b78QE#
part3:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Tif19?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfV_P2nrP63tgE#
part4:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Tif22?authkey=Gv1sRgCMbF-de1k_XSgwE#
part5:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIF24?authkey=Gv1sRgCMz289bo06v3YA#
part6:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Jpeg?authkey=Gv1sRgCMqv_PDJl62KmgE#
part7:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Tif23?authkey=Gv1sRgCNq46_yw3I2a-wE#
part8:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIF21?authkey=Gv1sRgCJLs4aez09SNQA#
big hug
ahhh..i await to be moderated..i tried to post 8 links…coz Preston wanted to see the surrounding frames..
ok..i will try to post one at the time now..sorry for this…ok here we go :
part1:
part1:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIFTIFS?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLn1qnSp-S2Iw#
part2:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIF18?authkey=Gv1sRgCP2vg7qtn8b78QE#
part3:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Tif19?authkey=Gv1sRgCIfV_P2nrP63tgE#
part4:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Tif22?authkey=Gv1sRgCMbF-de1k_XSgwE#
part5:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIF24?authkey=Gv1sRgCMz289bo06v3YA#
part6:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Jpeg?authkey=Gv1sRgCMqv_PDJl62KmgE#
part7:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Tif23?authkey=Gv1sRgCNq46_yw3I2a-wE#
part8:
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/TIF21?authkey=Gv1sRgCJLs4aez09SNQA#
big hug
phewww
Preston…thanks..i should have done it earlier…there is more link but i think that 8 links are more than enough…imo
big hug
John G-Preston :))
though i dont like every picture in this brief shot, i think it is unfair to call the work lazy…i think it is important when looking at a particular body of work, it is so important that we view the intention of the work/photographer as well as their voice/relationship to photogrpahy and their history…i do not approach Panos’ work in the same way i approach my own, i do not look at either of your work the same as i do at my wifes, instead it’s important to see work for it’s underlying voice…
for me, here, there are some terrific images….i love the visual pun of the cars at sea (like a said, it reminds me of a Parr esque version of the Greek armies about to head off to Illium (troy)…
an example: a Martin Parr photo pun on Mexico
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/in_pictures_mexico_by_martin_parr/img/8.jpg
and i think the 2nd image is very strong, simply in photographic terms….and i think 11 is a classic Panos: a shot of ‘intrusion’ which is really about his own (our own) absurd protection and humour…
is panos loose? ;)))….hell yea, but i think what works for me in the stronger pics is when he’s being himself and that looseness gets under my skin…
but, i am very happy for you jumping in, cause a photographer has got to know that mostof what we do is crap, just as most of what we write…but among the dirt, gems come out…and for me, at least, that’s what i look for, gems :)))
cheers guys
bob
Holy crap, these are great. No story, but an engrossing sense of place, especially 6,11, and 18. Love it.
Cool, another my favorite photographer!
Nachtwey, Webbs, Bleasdale, Skoulidas, Parr,
Next should be Towell, Salgado, Parke, Richards, Vink or Pellegrin…
or Erwitt
or Petersen
or Harvey :)
Panos, bravo!!!
Panos — dude, there is an infinitely better edited to be taken from your 8 links than what’s here in this Burn presentation!
and just a quick follow-up:
John/Preston: i do think it is sooo important that each of us express exactly, good or ill, their reaction…as u both know, the photo world is MUCH MUCH meaner…and bad/weak photography will not win any magazine jobs or sell prints, ever….and i think too it is critical to be direct and honest to not only Panos but everyone who shows work, cause a good editor will be and bad editor wont even talk to you…but, i think this essay does showcase what Panos can do that is about his personality and the way he lives/shoots…and #2 is major access…that mom/daughter is not his family, but a mother in grief and he did handle that shot bravely and professionally…i challenged anyone to say #2 wouldnt be published in any good photo magazine….
but i totally hope and expect this essay to cause a firestorm of reaction and im sure panos welcomes the criticism…it has been WAY WAY too tame around here….
drinks on me…
but gotta run now
b
Panos/Preston:….damn, there are some sweet sweet gems in those 8 links…..agreed! :)))
Bob, I get what you are saying, but (and here you and I can indulge a little pedantry) not every clever resonance works. Panos’ cars on the shore might suggest the triremes of the ancient Athenian navy, but cars don’t put to sea. So the trope is inexact, and the allusion can’t redeem an unremarkable photo.
I am greatly intrigued by (and I aspire to) photos that suggest historical resonance in contemporary situations. Salgado is the master of this — his migrating peasants are the Holy Family in their flight to Egypt. Pigeons are the descending Holy Spirit. Fishermen haul their nets like the disciples waiting to be called by Jesus. But for all the Biblical allusions, Salgado’s photos are not dependent on them. They succeed as images in their own right, without needing the buttressing of cultural history.
So, yeah, I love the gesture toward history (and how can one photograph in Greece without alluding to it?), but the photos still have to sing even if one has not read The Iliad.
Bob..i agree…i do ask and need hard, hard ,harder criticism..
John & Preston are two great gentlemen… polite too.. I hear what they say and i totally respect it…
but firestorm of reaction…i do welcome it and encourage it..
Marcin…come later from the office to give you your check…;)
Preston…:)
great point and conversation…the Edit part…of this work..of any work…
the Edit….what the Edit should be? As many regulars here already know..i do trust DAH’s editing skills…
Now did DAH edited according to what he liked? According to who i am? To what a magazine would like?
One thing i can tell for sure..this edit finds me to agree %100…. The result is “me”…
I also sent it to Nikos E..about an hour ago and he also agreed with the edit…He was actually even more excited than Marcin above…:)
But that you would prefer another edit only makes me wanna go back to those links and look at them with a different “eye”…once again..
thank u for the food for thought…I also believe that a final edit is never really that “final”..nor the end..
big hug
I think #19 could be a very good photo if the guy’s face on the left were cropped out. I would like #6 if the pigeon were not on the table. It lessens the visual impact of the two yellow things –fries? onions?– on the plate. And frankly, it’s a bit too cute for me, as are #8 and #1. Of course those are my opinions based on personal tastes. Though, again, I think #19 could be good according to more universal standards. Hands tell us so much.
My first reaction is to agree with John Gladdy. I, too, don’t think that the individual photos stand up to scrutiny, certainly not by normal photojournalism standards. But given that David and Anton and apparently a whole helluva a lot of other people I respect, including Panos, think differently, I pause and want to re-evaluate — to find if the problem is me and not the photos. Or are meant as art and not photojournalism? That would bring up an entirely different set of issues.
From what I’ve seen from his links here at burn, I like Panos’s work. I think the storytelling is the strongest element and the personality these little projects exude make them very enjoyable to watch. Although I often don’t like individual photos for technical reasons, I find they work well in the context of the essay. They are like the vivid little snapshots your mind fixes on during a crazy joyride. I like that style and I like that Panos has such a style.
But again, as individual photos, I wonder. They break so many of the rules. I’m not necessarily against that, it just makes me look harder. And I like rule-breaking when it works. I do it all the time. But to be honest, if I just came across these photos out in the wild; if I didn’t know Panos, at least as an imaginary internet friend; if I didn’t know burn; I probably wouldn’t look at them all that hard. But hey, if editors like them and want to publish; and gallery owners want to sell them — well, those are the opinions that matter. I’m more than willing to consider that the problem is me.
Since we’re into honesty here: I have never understood the point of giving negative comments without presenting solutions (and I probably never will).
I’ve noticed the vignetting in your earlier work as well Panos, and both there and here I think it’s too much and doesn’t appear naturally. Some of the pictures would be so much better for me it weren’t for the vignetting. But what you don’t score on the technical side weighs up for me when it comes to your personality in the pictures. It feels like I know you through what you have seen and not many have that ability.
The duck at the dinner table… Priceless.
Preston :))…
totally agree…and I ABSOLUTELY agree with the kill-ratio of good pics between this essay and all those beauties in the cavern of Panos’ 8 links…and shit, i love working up some pedantry, especially with you :)) (but over wine will better in the sping when we’re down, i hope! :) )…I agree that just because a photo has an historical (literary, photographic, visual, historical trope) it doesnt mean it’s a success…and im not sure if panos’ intent with cars was related to greece’s history, but i saw it like that and that pit of pun made me smile, just like the pigeon on the table….and there are a fare number of pics here (and in al those links) which dont register with me either….but, Preston, Cars actually do put to sea…for the act of putting to see (for travel, for trade, for war) is actually found now in cars and that juxtaposition of allusion and transformation is all there in the pic, for sure: we no longer ply the waters of war or trade with long-brow’d black-sail boats with oarsmen, but in small hunkered down cars and full-wing tilt’d planes…do we not?…but yet, a visual pun isnt enough for me as a photographer either, but that is MY predilection: i love the poetry and collision of photography, not it’s versimilitude (then again, i read Celan and not jackie collins ;)) )…but i dont approach Panos’ work the way i approach, say, Boltanski or Mann, but i approach it the way I approach Amis (the father)…make sense?….
i think part of good photograph should allude (with both verve and acumen and subtlety) to history (of photography and of life) cause all photography is connected and can one photograph greece without it’s history ….and yes, the photos MUST sing….but singing comes in many forms, including the ineluctable rhyme of laughter….
sing forth said the gods, not with tears, but with howl’d laughter ;)))
but, im sure both of us wish a cut at the longer edit :)))
ok, gotta fly, absolutely….waiting for a chat over wine :))))
and I agree: john G rules!
b
Panos,
good to see your images on burn again. Boy, it is already getting hot again ;-)
I am way too tired for a decent comment, but as mentioned above the duck at the dinner table is priceless indeed!
Hope to catch up with you some time. Spring is coming so get your butt up north!
Tomorrow will be again an early start for me so I say good night!
Big hug!
Reimar
Nice one Panos!! Your work is improving greatly… really starting to see more of a cohesive voice. Enjoyed it very much!
Panos, congratulations again. You’re certainly on a roll. Careful you don’t peak early and crash and Burn!:)))
I was so delighted to see this here, and I mean a delight. I’m not sure what to make of the edit, but I love some of the images. #7, the restaurant scene is absolutely brilliant. It’s tender, funny, and whimsical. The composition is anything but “clean”, yet it is so rich in its’ chaos. The last shot, the portrait is also very beautiful but in a completely different way.
I’m never quite sure if you are a visionary genius, or just a maniac with a camera, stumbling through life, firing off pictures at random. It always feels like a little of both when I view your stuff.
It would be fascinating to see someone elses edit of your take. I too see many gems in your links, but am sure my choices would reflect my own vision and not yours. Still, young Mr. Harvey is so right when he suggests editing may be the hardest part of what we do. I am frequently very surprised at the choices others make when viewing my work.
Anyway, bravo