The 15th edition of the Toulouse MAP festival, with its always diverse programming, will present the images of Nikos Aliagas, journalist, TV presenter and photographer at the start of the 2024 school year. This is a preview meeting.
Nikos’ Spleen – Interview by Jean-Jacques Ader
Jean-Jacques Ader: How did you become aware of images?
Nikos Aliagas: My first emotion happened when I was a child. I was born in Paris but we regularly went to Greece on vacation, to my family’s village, and there, I saw black & white photos of my grandfather, young and handsome, when he was already old. And there I understand temporality, the perception of time. I also have a predisposition to observe, to select what I see, like in a frame. Later, to encourage me, my father gave me a Kodak Instamatic. Everything I have done along my journey is thanks to a permanent photographic memory.
Then you went into journalism.
NA: Yes, I got my press card at 19, I work on radio, on TV, I also manage, to do my interviews. Then, once in the animation, I hesitated to continue going behind the camera. But over time I took up photo again, I post images on the internet, I test, I look. My concern remains: where does this need to photograph come from? This emergency; to see a scene unfold before my eyes, I have to find a light, the spectacle of the world.
Do you consider yourself professional?
NA: If by professional you mean demanding, then yes I have requirements. The goal is not to make a living from it but it is a need to express something, to tell. There are many paths to take in photography. Minimalism for example, which I didn’t understand. In many fields the beginner tends to add more, but you learn a lot by looking at an image and realizing that with almost nothing there is everything.
Your images will soon be at the MAP festival in Toulouse
NA: I was contacted by Ulrich Lebeuf who is in charge of programming, and who found my images interesting, seeing more of them, that there was real work. So why not think about a selection to exhibit, in short, there was a dialogue that took place between us. Then the idea of taking images here, in Toulouse, in anticipation of the festival in September. So there you have it, taking photos in the street, in the markets, by feeling. Human, contact. This will be in addition to my other images selected for the MAP.
Your work is essentially in Black and White, in a certain tradition
NA: Of course. Sabine Weiss, Koudelka, Salgado, these are essential references. I love Édouard Boubat, he’s a great photographer who isn’t recognized enough. I love all these people who manage to capture authentic moments, because in photos, the fake is visible, it’s difficult to explain but it’s visible when it’s fake. Afterwards, there are no rules, someone like Eugene Richards, who I admire, spent years with the people he photographed to make certain series. Time, therefore, time is my first inspiration. And then everything is movement, that’s the phrase from Heraclitus. This moment will not happen again; the water of the river flows incessantly but never repeats itself.
What made you decide to show your work?
NA: It was more those around me who encouraged me, and the people who knew my images who pushed me. Being famous on the one hand blocked me a little of course, it can be more problematic than you think; but even though I was going to exhibit myself and they were waiting for me, I decided that it wasn’t that bad either.
What did these experiences teach you?
NA: selection. How difficult is it to edit for a photographer… to find one reason to keep this one and not the other, at what point do you know you have something interesting, or not? And interesting for whom? Others will also tell you. It takes time to see what we have to say. We come back to it, time is an ally to see things more clearly, and to give people time to feel things. Take your time, the great photographers that I admire took years to find their way. Now I’m not looking for recognition at all costs, if I can tell my story that will be good. Whoever trusts me follows me.
Are you interested in the profusion of all these images that are now on social networks?
NA: At first it was very exciting of course, but in fact it’s not what I’m looking for. Too many images kills the image, the compilation is not of much interest. The whole world is making images but it all disappears quickly. And for all these reasons, I prefer to believe in memory. Photography is memory, it is interested in philosophy, humanity and freedom. I am free to go and photograph a deaf and mute gypsy woman, who lives on the Missolonghi lagoon, and put her in the light, because I have to learn and we all have to learn things from her. It becomes our mirror. I take photos to remember, to provoke emotion and tell stories. Many of the most beautiful photos I have taken are those I discovered along the way, when I was leaving for something else. Sometimes there are extraordinary accidents.
MAP photo festival, in the Saint-Cyprien district in Toulouse from September 12 to 29, 2024, free access. With among others Robert Doisneau, Letizia Le Fur, Nikos Aliagas, Jérémy Saint-Peyre, Chloe Milos Azzopardi, Louise Desnos; creative event by Mouss & Hakim on images by Jean Dieuzaide.
Information: https://map-photo.fr/
