Photography is so much more than a mere medium to depict reality; it is the transformation of reality into art, into something aesthetically pleasing that would – ideally – last in time. To put it in even simpler words, it is the observation of art hidden within nature.
Alexandros Malapetsas
In the poetry of nature
Text: Chryssa Nanou
Five years ago Alexandros Malapetsas took a risk only a few would dare, abandoning the city for the sake of the countryside. He left Athens to move to the region of Zagori, in Epirus, Greece, in a decision that radically changed his life and sealed his work as an artist. Over the last years he has been living in the village of Ano Pedina, alongside a handful of permanent residents. He chose to behold every morning a different world, the one outlined by the mountain peaks of Pindos, where the line separating the earth and the sky is often barely discernible and almost fades away.
As a landscape photographer he captures nature’s grandeur, placing emphasis on meticulous framing, the wide tonic gamut and plasticity; in other words, all the elements dictated by the poetry of nature itself. “Moving from the biggest metropolis of the country to a tiny village definitely reshapes someone’s entire life to a great extent. Noise, stress and complexity give way to silence, calmness and simplicity,” he observes. “When these changes occur on a personal level, they are also reflected in one’s approach to art. Our ways of behavior and expression are internalized and manifest themselves within us as they are no longer imposed by external factors or aiming at the acceptance of others. When your target audience is no other than yourself, maybe the outcome will end up having a bigger impact on the eyes of the beholders, as they perceive it as something original and unexpected. For some people, creativity is achieved within a group or in a big city that offers stimuli. For others, seclusion and spending time with oneself produces the same effect. To me, waking up surrounded by nature is surely priceless, both on a personal and an artistic level.
He self-taught his way into the universe of photography. “Regardless of the field one is interested in, self-teaching has become a rather easy task nowadays, as we have unprecedented access to knowledge, provided that one is eager enough to take a closer look,” he explains. He started out his journey in photography by capturing holiday and everyday life moments and snapshots, and soon found himself devoting all of his free time to the study of techniques and constant practice. “As time passed on, a series of more targeted photo trips consolidated my love for landscape photography and played a great role in some life-changing decisions I made. Seven years since my first steps, not a single day goes by without learning new things. I am confident that this process will go on indefinitely, as the more you learn the more you come to realize how many things you are still unaware of.”
The way arts are nowadays consumed has inevitably led to their trivialization. The singularities and the details hidden in a classical music symphony or a photo book cannot be appreciated through superficial approaches, as they demand paying attention, delving into the subject, and fully letting go. A few seconds are not enough for one to perceive the underlying meanings. Therefore, it would be wise to devote a little more time to what pleases us instead of imprudently fragmenting our attentions towards things that end up leaving us indifferent and unswayed.
For Alexandros Malapetsas, photography, as all means of expression, mirrors each individual’s personality and view on the world. “People grasp the frequency spectrums of sound and image in a completely different way than the rest of the planet’s animals. Moreover, we all hear and see our own version of reality, according to our own unique experiences, or even our mood in a particular moment or period in our life. The sight of a photo can therefore trigger countless melodies, odors, emotions and memories inside our head, provided that we are willing to wholeheartedly surrender ourselves to the observation of images.”
However, the ritual of observation is filtered through our personal relation with the notion of time: “Unfortunately, the way arts are nowadays consumed has inevitably led to their trivialization. The singularities and the details hidden in a classical music symphony or a photo book cannot be appreciated through superficial approaches, as they demand paying attention, delving into the subject, and fully letting go. A few seconds are not enough for one to perceive the underlying meanings. Therefore, it would be wise to devote a little more time to what pleases us instead of imprudently fragmenting our attentions towards things that end up leaving us indifferent and unswayed. After all, photography is so much more than a mere medium to depict reality; it is the transformation of reality into art, into something aesthetically pleasing that would – ideally – last in time. To put it in even simpler words, it is the observation of art hidden within nature.”
Living in Pindos he experiences the succession of seasons as a daily miracle. “Spring finds us welcoming the sun for more hours each day, while the buzz from the insects’ feathers and the melodies from the birds’ song are getting louder and louder. The flowers and the trees
blossom, the wind swirls their pink and white pedals all around. The mountain peaks are crowned with the snow slowly melting for a few more weeks, fuelling the springs that quench the thirst of the region’s rich fauna. The passing of seasons exists and is evident in all aspects of nature. In the summertime, mountains bustle with life, from the smallest flower to the biggest forest. In the fall, nature explodes in a rupture of colors that sometimes seem too beautiful to be real. Wintertime, even though it freezes the land and gives us a bit of a hard time, offers us in return a surplus of calmness and a serene pace. Finally, spring comes to remind us that the rebirth of nature will never cease to triumph.”
Currently working on his new project, Alexandros Malapetsas has turned the spotlight on the unseen microcosmos. “Having spent years engaging and experimenting with several genres of photography, I ended up being blown away by the multifarious beauty of the microcosmos. The more detailed a glance you cast over nature the more you discover new horizons of exploration, even entire new worlds. When the microcosmos is matched with a stripped-down and minimal approach, each viewer can attach their own interpretation to the image seen. This ongoing project for quite some time now focuses on a small and usually unseen world, with a lifespan of only a few days per year. This element increases the level of difficulty, but will ultimately give great value to the final outcome.”
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