Ilias Georgiadis came into photography in 2009, at the age of 19, when Greece sank into a deep economic and political crisis. Unlike many young Greeks who went into exile in London or Paris, Ilias chose to stay in Thessaloniki. It is from there that he embarked on a quest for images whose goal, he says, was”not to feel a stranger to myself or to the universe.”
This research, which is both intimate and cosmic, manifests itself in a contrasting, urgent and intense writing which in some ways recalls that of the ephemeral Provoke movement in Japan from 1968-69. And it is at the frontiers of legibility that Ilias Georgiadis experiences the beauty of the shipwreck: scratching the negatives, stacking words on images, exploring the grain of the black …
Making a book like the survivor would make a lifeboat to “stand in the middle, between life and the fear of death, inevitable”, survive and reach the shore of others. The photographer presents his work as a journey, even as damnation marked by desire and loss. A melancholy that brings him closer to Théo Angelopoulos.
The exhibition offers a scenography that reflects this existential journey and highlights its narrative process, the back and forth between image and writing, near and far.
Two books will emerge from these ten years of work: Over-State (Blow-up press) and Vialattea (Origini edizioni). In addition to the sixty prints exhibited, these two books will be available for consultation at the gallery.
Beyond the seemingly lyrical aspect of his work, Ilias Georgiadis pays great attention to the precision of the editing, the treatment of negatives, the materiality of the images. Leaving nothing to chance, he uncompromisingly practices a very rigorous selection of his photographs, attentive to a form of materiality that carries meaning.
“I really like photographic accidents, image accidents, and mistakes that can occur. These marks that you see in the pictures have happened because I lived too long with the negatives. Obsessed with the desire to look at them. Sometimes I also feel like causing crashes, in processes that I can control, so I try. different things. For me, this kind of materiality – one that transcends image – is important because I aspire to convey moments of vulnerability and imperfection. All of these traces add an extra-thin layer that expresses this vulnerability. A melody that metaphorically describes how we can be at peace with death to come ”. (Ilias Georgiadis)
The Photographic Larvoratory
Founded in 2018 to practice, share and create digital and film images, the Profondeur de Champ association invested in 2020 a remarkable space (a former shoemaker shop) in the city center of Douarnenez to make it a place of mediation, photography meetings and exhibitions.
Ilias Georgiadis : Black Thread
from August 4 to 28, 2021
Le Larvoratoire photographique
20 rue Anatole France
29100 Douarnenez
