Thessaloniki Trip Part 4-Self Close-Up Portraits

While visiting my beloved friends Hercules and Betty in Thessaloniki, Hercules showed me his new compact camera, a Canon G11, pointing out that among others it has a powerfull macro, for close-up shots. This serioes of photos is from my experimenting with the macro taking close-up portraits of myself.

Thessaloniki Trip Part 3- "Clean Monday" at Euosmos

"Clean Monday" as we call it in Greece, the end of Carnaval-beginning of fasttill Easter, is a very important day for us. I was fortunate to follow my beloved friend Rena to a celebration in Euosmos-one of the west Thessaloniki districts. What led us there was the word "Gaida", which is the blow instrument made out of the goat's belly. An ancient instrument which call we couldn't ignore. A Gaida, a Daouli (drum) and a Voice is all it takes to make people get off their seats. The cold was very strong (it started snowing in the afternoon). The crisis psycology strong too, we felt the people being quite numb, not having the feel for dance and fun. A lot of those people that day, came for the opportunity of a free meal and of some communication. We being fortunate to have food in our houses, we stood up and started the dance to raise the spirits.

Thessaloniki Trip Part 2- Mykoniatika beach

My beloved friend Rena that i visited while in Thessaloniki this Carnaval, i a winter swimmer. She and the other fellow swimmers meet at a beach called Mykoniatika (named after the famous island Mykonos). Tha day that we went, only two swam and i wasn't one of them! For me, it was a wonderfull opportunity to feel the openess of the sea and this sweet feeling of aloness in the middle of a cloudy day horizon. Yoy know what i love that when there are no people on the beach? The things that would not be visible if the beach was crowded, come up now and create a new space around them. Little details and whispers, sweet lonely strokes that in my eyes are transformed into forme whirling like storms around a steady center. And then, a very good chance for me to explore the universe of human interaction and portrait making.