Syrna, 2001
Digital inkjet archival print
Long-term loan from the artist
In many of Panos Kokkinias’s meticulously staged photographs, people do not exactly inhabit the landscape; rather, they seem to exist within it at a scale that renders them diminished. Alternately cryptic, idyllic, and occasionally latently threatening, the landscapes framing the human figures suggest a relationship between human beings and their natural and social environments that is fraught, paradoxical, or downright precarious. In Syrna, a solitary figure lost within the burnt Arcadian forest carries a chair, though entirely in vain as this charred landscape is no place for a human to dwell in. The work is particularly relevant today, especially in the context of the Anthropocene and the increasingly real threat of desertification it poses to the Southeastern Mediterranean.
Panos Kokkinias is among the most prominent Greek photographers of his generation. For the rich, almost cinematic narratives he stages in his otherwise still photographs, he borrows storytelling devices from the traditions of painting and the moving image. The human figure, often solitary and melancholic, estranged from both its natural and built environments, is central to his work. At a time when images are easier to both produce and triviliase than ever before, Panos Kokkinias’ meticulously planned photographs—masterfully shot, processed and printed—reaffirm the enduring power of the medium as an art form.
Panos Kokkinias was born in 1965 in Athens, where he lives and works.
