Contemporary Greek photography is not what one could characterize as ‘well known’ in today’s art scene but there are undoubtedly cases of Greek photographers who have attained in producing engrossing work and have managed to exhibit it abroad; one of these cases is that of the 40-year old Stratos Kalafatis. Kalafatis didn’t start out his career as a photographer but rather as an athlete who at some point in his life, out of luck, choice or coincidence decided to devote himself to the art of photography and has been doing that since 1993. One of his most original works is the entitled “Journal 1998-2002”, in summary a series of photographs of people, faces, animals, places and objects he took on the island of Skopelos within four years. Using a special technique, he transforms up to an extent, the real into the surreal, reminding us of the images we see while dreaming or even daydreaming. The invisible and usually ignored uniqueness of simple, ordinary moments of our lives reveal their concealed magic, the one we tend to beglect of forget. Stratos Kalafatis doesn’t keep a written diary; his diary is a picture one…
Tags: Stratos Kalafatis