Nikos Markou: Capturing beauty in some very unlikely places
Marcel Proust used to say that discovery isn’t about finding new landscapes but seeing things from a new perspective. Nikos Markou’s photography exhibition, which opened yesterday at the AD Gallery, teaches the public how to discover images / hidden treasures in places one would never look: the Attiki Odos when it was still under construction, parks in Athens, the Piraiki neighborhood in Piraeus or even garbage dumps. The photographs are taken from the edition «Kosmos,» published by Tetarto a year ago. Markou’s encounter with beauty and harmony is like a sweet obsession. Whenever he had any free time, he would take his camera, get in his car and embark on a journey into the unknown. After a few kilometers, his well-trained eye would detect the things that intrigued him. «I take photographs to travel. I travel to take photographs,» said Markou to Kathimerini. His shots only have dates and no captions. «It isn’t that important to know if the photograph is from Evia, the Prespes Lakes or a small park in Athens; the point is to focus on the image itself,» said the photographer, who became better known to the wider public through last year’s «Outlook» exhibition. Many visitors then were drawn to his photograph of a half-sunken ship which resembled a train. Those acquainted with the photographer’s older work may remember his black-and-white atmospheric shots or the photographs of the residents of Perama. The photographs on display at the AD Gallery have a different artistic feel. People hardly appear in them and the light doesn’t seem to have the strong, Mediterranean quality but rather the poetic pallor of late afternoon or a rainy morning. What is most impressive in the exhibition is the long and narrow format of the photographs, which stresses even more the geometry of the shots, which the photographer handles with ease. It is not surprising to learn that he has a degree in mathematics.
