The Place of Uniqueness

To the children that are going to be born…

What will remain invisible is the fact that the meeting of the lens with the person occurs in places of the photographer's childhood. Let's say that the texture of a photograph, which, in some way, casts the shroud of the past onto the present, is a filter which contains a passage through older times, in order for them to re-emerge. Being more than a piece of frozen time, a portrait is an encounter of persons. A person is unique. Who can add up, who can save uniqueness?

As the century of suspicion ends, its commands leading to sterility, beyond Freudian discoveries, the look of a child is synonymous to innocence. And then the expression of a young beast, a tender threat, rooted in the instinct of the animals' young, which helps them protect themselves through their power of seduction. A father's testimony, while he describes the look of his child, is his feeling that deep in this newly born look, he can discern a series of looks, the looks of his generation.

The frozen look, the instant conception; and yet, this instant capture becomes a parable about time, and a passage to the unconstructible quality of the look. Because we ignore, and will go on ignoring the hole into eternity that a moment can open, we will go on day-dreaming over a photograph.

Text: Vasilis Laliotis
Photographs: Nikos Mitrogiannopoulos

The photographs appear the young Thanasis Laliotis and they come from a b/w super 8 family film, Tri-X 7278. The film was developed by Panagiotis Feretos, who also took the photos from the frames. It was shooted on the summer of 1999 by Nikos Mitrogiannopoulos .
The article was published first on the magazine “Fotografizontas” of Manolis Kasimatis during the spring of 2000. “The children that are going to be born” now are called Stelios and Athina-Marina. They are fascinated every time they see on the wall “the four dances” of Brigit Bardo and they still try to hold stable in their hands a Bolex 564 XLAF camera.