PHOTOSYNKRIA INVENTIONS & ACCOUNTS: PHOTOGRAPHY & NARRATION.

Public opinion usually treats the photographic image as the static recording of situations, as opposed to the moving cinematographic image, which is considered to be the sole medium that has the ability to narrate. The truth is, each photograph reveals traces of narration from within, as many as are needed in order to interpret the choice and merging of the elements of which it is composed. However, from its very first steps, the photograph could also satisfy the broader definition of narration which, according to Emmanuel Kriaras, is the narration of an event with a somewhat extensive report. A great number of techniques served and continue to serve the desire of photographers to narrate, whether it concerns the description of an actual event or pure invention. Every form of photographic narration, from the linear depiction of images to stage directing, is the theme of Photosynkyria 2004 titled INVENTIONS AND ACCOUNTS, the artistic manager of which is John Stathatos. The two large group exhibitions and the solo exhibitions include works of classic Greek and foreign photographers, renowned personages in the field of contemporary art, as well as talented upcoming creators.

The most well-known form of photographic narration is perhaps the photo essay, whose content is usually of a journalistic nature and although it is chiefly connected to the rise of magazines such as Picture Post, Life, Paris Match, Eikones, it nevertheless continues to flourish in our days.

Contrasting with these creations, at least at first sight, are the staged inventions by well-known contemporary photographers. A folk (and at times prevailing) version of the kind can be seen in the famous photo romances of the folk magazine press in the 60s and 70s.

The special category of personal, often diary-like photographic narrations through which artists deal with their past and present falls somewhere between an account and an invention. Here too, the techniques vary from the complex digital images to the use of a text.

Lastly, a group exhibition of young Greek photographers, entitled Coincidences and Constructions: Interpretations of Everyday Life, curated by Alexandra Moschovi and Panos Kokkinias, comes to complete Photosynkyria.

www.photosynkria.gr/2004