FROM ART TO PHOTOGRAPHY AND WHY

The Substance of Memories I – Manhattan New York – © Julia Anna Gospodarou 2016 (Detail – See the entire image at the end of the article)

How do you travel from art to photography?  Should art look like “art”, or should it look like the artist? Should photographs follow a recognizable pattern in order to be accepted or should they express the vision of the artist?  Is an object art, even if it is not understood? Is the artist an artist, even if he is not understood? Even if he does not fall into a mainstream “artist” pattern?  How does the artist and photographer find inspiration and how does he transform it into an object that has the power to move?

INTRODUCTION

I will not try to answer these questions. Not directly, at least. But I will tell you a story that comprises all these questions and hopefully some answers. A story about how art can influence photography, how you can travel from art to photography, and how art and memories can be the substance of photography.

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ABOUT BEING VULNERABLE IN ART – MAKING OF “UNKNOWN PROPHECY”

Unknown Prophecy © Julia Anna Gospodarou 2016

An article about being vulnerable in art and about the making of “Unknown Prophecy”, my latest image, that explores this idea. Being vulnerable in art is one of the prerequisites of great art. It allows the artist to explore more honestly his emotion and transmit it in his work, so he can connect with the viewer more directly and efficiently.

“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”

– Swami Vivekananda

I have shot this image that I am calling “Unknown Prophecy” in Mycenae, one of the most important archaeological sites in Greece, and one of the most mysterious and profound cultural places I’ve ever experienced. This is the inside of the Tomb of Agamemnon, or the Treasury of Atreus, as it is also called, and it is a space where I personally feel an intense energy and very deep emotion. This photo is me trying to convey the things I feel inside this space combined with me seeing photography as a spiritual tool even more than an aesthetic one, and much more than a documentary one, a tool capable of going deep into our minds and souls and project outside what lies there.

I think photography is much more than an image. Of course it can be just an image, it depends what we are using it for. But in my vision photography can be much more and this Continue reading →