They eavesdrop on people’s most personal moments, their deepest thoughts, their pleasures and woes. It makes no difference whether they may be luxury suites in five-star hotels, or rundown rooms in roadside motels; they’re all witnesses to everyday life events, from the most mundane to the very definitive.
Athanasia Papadopoulou
Hotel rooms
Text: Dimitra Kehagia
They eavesdrop on people’s most personal moments, their deepest thoughts, their pleasures and woes. It makes no difference whether they may be luxury suites in five-star hotels, or rundown rooms in roadside motels; they’re all witnesses to everyday life events, from the most mundane to the very definitive, even though the only one who may be living these moments is the room tenant alone.
Ηotels is a photo project comprising 70 autobiographical pictures taken in 25 hotel rooms located in six different countries. The photos depict rooms located in Mytilene, Koufonisia, Florina, Alexandroupolis, going as far as Berlin and Benares.
Photographer Athanasia Papadopoulou was given the thrust for this project when she stayed in a room at the island of Symi, in the Dodekanese islands cluster, approximately ten years ago.
«I wondered for the first time, how many people have passed through the same room, what did they leave behind?».
That’s where she took the first photo and ten years ensued while she searched for befitting images, all of which sought answers to the questions: What did they leave behind? What am I leaving behind?
«It was an endless arm-wrestling bout with my own self. Habits, feelings, anxieties, tendencies, they all travelled with me in kitsch, elegant, colorful or bland hotel rooms and they were transformed into pictures, instead of words that I didn’t have the courage to utter.»
Habits, feelings, anxieties, tendencies, they all travelled with me in kitsch, elegant, colorful or bland hotel rooms and they were transformed into pictures, instead of words that I didn’t have the courage to utter.
Now, the time has come to release Athanasia’s photos, taken with the express purpose of conveying the aura of these rooms in various hotels. She opted to publish them in an album on her own, deeming it as the most “honest” venue. In her project, the photographer had the valuable support of three other women, namely Lia Nalbantidou-photo editor; Sila Zamani-text editor; and Maita Chatziioannidou (Loopo Studio), in charge of layout. The Hotels album will be released before Christmas.
Athanasia Papadopoulou was born in 1972, in Thessaloniki. She studied accounting but changed route in the year 2004 when she followed photography courses at Stereosis, school of photography, as well as a number of seminars and workshops under the guidance of acclaimed photographers, among them Anders Petersen, Stratos Kalafatis, Nikos Economopoulos, JS Enghstrom and Jacob Aue. She has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and her work has been featured in museums and galleries both in Greece and abroad. As of December 2006, she lives and works in Thessaloniki where she maintains her own photography studio.
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