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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
Another example of the nature of photography, for good or ill, eh?
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Michael..yes..exactly….
I don’t see what you are trying to communicate in that photo
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it was the strike of light in their faces i cared about..in a way it symbolized their thin…tiny hope of their “new” life..
Go and live/embed yourself with the street traders, follow their lives,misery,police harrasment that would be quite a coup.
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Ian..now you’re talking…I’m starting with this man..”I befriended an immigrant”
http://picasaweb.google.com/innerspacecowpanos/Jpeg03#5448095307358440338
Panos, it seems to me you have a load of really interesting stories there in greece..georgian immigrants, street traders, the distrust of immigrants, the financial situation, the tourist trade (how it has brought wealth but also debouched behaviour by holiday makers).
Greece seems to be a place with alot of change going on at the moment.
I know of one story I would like to cover (if I can get the funds to do it) that has contributed massively financial crisis at the the moment.
Cheers
ian
Also the photo number 17..in this essay..
Immigrants from pakistan wandering around a small greek town starving, no help except Red Cross..
To make things worst the fear of the locals..created some crazy stories..Those immigrants are accused of killing and eating the dogs/pets of the locals…”Demons”..The pakistani immigrants are now victims of the albanian mafia…they “hire” them only for one plate of food for a whole day of work in the fields…they leave under the bridges…get sick and no doctors will treat them..they are demons..
it was the strike of light in their faces i cared about
Guess I saw it after all.
photo no3..immigrant street fair also..
photo no4..from an immigrant protest…
photo no6..symbolizes the immigrant soul landed in the “greek promised land”..
photo no14..also symbolizes the wish to tranfer to a better, prosperous land..the need to escape..
why all that? my whole greek essay is about the Immigrant dream, the immigrants soul.fears,wishes….
why? Because it is autobiographical..because that Immigrant is ME..
and finally the photo no1
ahhhhhhhhhhh..the photo no1..the pigeon that is taking off..
ahh thats the Immigrant spirit…my spirit…that is ready to depart for a new land..
“The No Direction Home” land..
my land..
or the “go back home” land…
…when the greek essay first came i got an email..from a good friend of mine , also saying:”I’m disappointed because i see no greece in your essay..show me greece..where greece is?”
im an immigrant of this world..i cant show greece..i dont even know what greece is either …i was simply born there…then my pigeon soul flew over another country…i cant describe my “other” home either..whats the name of those birds that they leave once the winter comes and return with summer? i forget the name..but that is my soul..that is why “wandering in greece”..
Hey Panos, I an not questioning your essay, I can see what you are doing.
Just thought I’d throw in a few ideas…..
I
Ian..
i loved and love your ideas…
again.. i just grabbed the opportunity to explain some extra things to Burn and myself…
and i totally agree with you..thats why i thought of befriending an immigrant..get an “insider” and become insider myself…not exploit anyone..
ploblem is as Eva stated i cant photograph..illegals…mention names..where they live etc..i have to portray “legal” immigrants…so they are not in danger…many people watching the web lately..and i would never forgive myself if anyone gets in trouble because of a freakin essay…
Panos, I understand the issue of getting people into trouble, but surely this is not an issue but an excuse. I think there have been essays on here where people have been up no good and yet their stories are photographer/published for let’s say “the greater good”, which in its self is a tricky argument as who’s good is it? When I worked on a documentary in Soweto (S.A) the working mantra of the film was “who benefits” this applied both to our working ethos but also to the main questions of the post apartheid south africa.
I think there was an essay on immigrants crossing the mexican border a while back.
cheers
I
Ian…i agree
Panos do it all in Ellies capsule relationship style ……….. can’t wait for the ending
he he..my plan is to not disappoint all those who already feel disappointed…
correction:
.my plan is to disappoint all those who already feel disappointed…
my plan is to
disappoint
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hmmm… keep disappointing maybe….;)
panos – re. immigrants and athens – you should check out jim goldbergs book ‘open see’.
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.BookDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3RTNFMS3
thank u Ben…
also patrick zachmann gave it a try…
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox&VBID=2K1HZS113X0D&IT=ThumbImage02_VForm&CT=Album&ALID=2TYRYD0PRVM4&RW=1349&RH=641
from Patrick Zachmann:
Greece. August 2009. Island of Samos. Greek coast guards patrol the Agean sea where illegal immigrants try to cross the border coming from Kusadasi on the Turkish side. They want to arrive in Europe where they can ask for asylum and make a new life. Most of them come from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Eastern Europe, Algeria, Morocco or Palestine. The migrants usually pay traffickers between 1000 and 2000 dollars, depending if one of them will go with the migrants or not. In 2008 police arrested around 2700 illegal immigrants in Samos alone and 80000 in all of Greece. Here, 18 migrants are found at 5:20am. One coast guard is drawing a rifle on them as if they were criminals and shouts: “Hands up! Don’t touch the boat!” Migrants often try to cut their dinghy so that the coast guards are forced to save them from sinking. In this way they are sure that they won’t be sent back to Turkey. They are claiming they are “Afghans” in order to get the international status of refugees and protection. One of the guard coast shouted back: “If you are Afghans, I am Swedish!” They will be arrested by police, their fingerprints taken and sent to the detention center on Samos.
Very lovely pictures – most. I wish it were longer. I haven’t read the whole discussion but i got up to the beginning of the discussion about editing and nice things being in the link that were chopped out. I think its about time I say something that I’ve thought for a long time. The editing in many Burn essays is off. I don’t think Harvey is as good an editor as he thinks. I think he should respect the choices of the photographers a bit more and make it more a joint effort rather than running slipshod over their work.
To clarify, though its not a case here. Often i’ve noticed that the start of an essay includes a number of strong images that don’t link together. Its like some images are chosen the represent the edges of the topic. When viewing the beginning, I often have the feeling of being at sea about what’s going on. After a bit, the images start to show more links to each other and the story starts to flow and make more sense and at the end, are a few weaker pictures. Undoubtedly people – if anyone reads this – will not understand what I am trying to say here. I am not sure I am being too clear. Still, i have noticed this in quite a few essays and have held my tongue til now.
“The editing in many Burn essays is off. I don’t think Harvey is as good an editor as he thinks. I think he should respect the choices of the photographers a bit more and make it more a joint effort rather than running slipshod over their work.”
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Andrea..:)
Firstly thank you for checking the essay…(and thanks for wishing it was longer..i posted more links under comments so feel free to see more and more…plus more coming up as im still shooting in greece)..
and i have to admit u got some balls to write off Harveys editing skills…
Personally i dont “let” D. edit just because he is David… i trust his experience and poetic nature..As far as i know though, he always runs the edit back to the photog…
just to be in the same page with them (us)..And i think that he edits ONLY if he is asked…For example , slideshows or multimedia ( think Imants essay ) are small example of “unedited by DAH” presentations…
I dont know what other essayists have to say but in my case there was a lot of back and forth going on editing wise (through skype of course )till we end up in the final (for Burn of course ) edit …
Most of the essays here are evolving …not done..work in progress..therefore…edit is subjective and represents the given time been published…
but anyway..this is your opinion..its respected and obviously , as you wrote above, this is something u wanted to say and communicate for quite a while now…
peace
Photos shot in Greece, but not of Greece, a perfectly sensitive and actual approach, not the least unnatural or insincere for that, on the contrary. some shots leave me blank, but most I find totally enjoyable and worthy of scrutiny. What is seen, not seen, said, not said. Keep up that good work, Panos, and thanks for these vignettes of life somewhere, Greece accidentally, in 2010. Gorgeous, positive (?) color palette in the portraits (+context) one, that I had not seen in your LA work so much.