Sea crossings

Escaping floats between two worlds where silence lies—the well of life that extends the vision of parallel universes of faces.

Through nonexistence emerge visions, recollections of a primal memory. Waves of life sweep me away to the open sea, until the rebirth of my childhood soul.

Sea crossings marks my very first structured photographic series and first solo exhibition—a project born out of profound personal necessity and familial memory. Named by my dear friend and mentor, musicologist Markos Dragoumis, the work pays tribute to the sea that shaped my family's heritage, coming from Asia Minor fishermen and my late father, who spent his youth working on wooden kaikis.

The catalyst for the entire series was a single frame: a man viewed from behind, facing the open horizon while holding a small toy boat—an image that instantly brought my father's memory back to life. Shot exclusively with a rangefinder Leica M equipped with a single 28mm lens on Ilford Delta 400 black-and-white film, the project captures my inner circle—my mother, friends, my partner at the time, and anonymous travelers—bound together by the quiet geometry of ferry decks and sea journeys.

Hand-printed in the darkroom by my unforgettable first teacher, master photographer Dimitris Kioseoglou, the silver gelatin prints capture the subtle light and shadows of transit. Sea crossings is a contemplative reflection on roots, loss, and the timeless pull of the open sea.

First presented as a solo exhibition ("Sea Passages") at the Hellenic Photographic Society Gallery, Athens (2002), designed into a limited self-published catalogue by Yiorgos Yionas.