the gaze of eternity

 
 

When I started my photographic journey into the Greek mainland, during the late 80’s, I was deeply moved by the work of Theo Angelopoulos. I was impressed by his filmmaking techniques, his long takes, his photography, the music of his films. Unseen Greece, my first album was created around that time. Since then, I had a strong desire to attend Angelopoulos to his shootings and undertake the backstage shooting. I was intrigued to capture through my lens, through my own perspective, what was going on while everybody and everything moved in preparation for a specific shot and so many things happened behind the camera. I’ll never forget his last three movies. During our first acquaintance at lake Kerkini, when he asked me why I wanted to take backstage shots, I offered him Unseen Greece: he flipped through its pages, looked at me, smiled, and went on his job… Until this last portrait I took of him, during that nightmarish evening at Keratsini, the place of his unfinished film The Other Sea. Text by Ilias Bourgiotis


These photos are from Theo Angelopoulos’ latest film,The Other Sea.