Evi leads us on a trip of questions through her visual suggestions. She makes us wonder whether she reflects the history of the place or unfolds a personal story in front of our eyes through her camera.
Evi Karagiannidi’s story, like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, shifts us from one reality to another through the eye of her camera.
Had Evi chosen to write a story, rather than present them in a visual form, we would be in the realm of ‘literary nonsense’, the presentation of a world which is topsy-turvy, but not in the realm of fantasy. A literary genre which depends on a balance of sense and non-sense, on order and chaos. The effect of nonsense, according to Wim Tigges, author of The Anatomy of Literary Nonsense, is often caused by an excess of meaning, rather than the lack of it. Strictness balanced by semantic chaos. Nonsense can exist as a genre, in which many nonsense devices are used to create a careful balance – in short, the principle on which Lewis Carol wrote his Alice stories.
Like a writer would do, the photographer depicts the relationships of the natural elements of the place, sets off presence through absence, provides our visual appetite with a refined feast in order to reveal the fairy tale world in the hidden aspects of daily routine, and finally leads our memory from the knowledge of the history of the place to the revelation of nature, reminding us the relationship of man with the world.
Because though those documentary images I see in the newspapers speak to me of the human condition, sometimes I need to be shoved down a rabbit hole and encouraged to revel in the wonders of the natural world. A place where our spirit and intuition can be given free reign so that when we return via the rabbit hole, we do so rejuvenated and with lighter hearts, assisted to better deal with the harsh realities of the contemporary world.
Weekend portfolio selected by Jean-Luc Monterosso.
