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Charalampos Kydonakis (GR),
Back to Nowhere
(US)
(1) Please introduce yourself: What is your name, where are you from, what do you do?
I'm Charalampos Kydonakis, an architect from Crete.
(2) What is your relationship with photography and how did you get into it?
Photography isn't my profession, but I’ve spent a lot of my time on it, so I guess I’m an amateur who enjoys photographing and looking at other people's work. I started with film when I was studying architecture. When I converted to digital, everything became easier, cheaper, and less time-consuming. Still, I miss the analog process, and from time to time, I shoot a little bit of film.
(3) What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition?
Most times when I’m shooting moving subjects, everything is done instinctively. With landscapes, architecture, objects, etc., the moment's instinct doesn't matter; there's more time to think and reconsider everything. Not every moment or anything else can be transformed into an image just by clicking it. Some scenes look better in reality, much worse as images, and vice versa.
(4) What is the story you want your pictures to tell?
I have no guideline about it. It's better if the viewers imagine something themselves instead of entering a pre-made canal. I’m not sure if I want to tell something. No idea why I’m writing so much as an answer to this question.
(5) Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?
I love a lot of cities. Some of them are New York, Chicago, Sevilla, Berlin, Napoli, etc., and I like re-visiting places I’ve been before. The thing is that some of them have become so expensive in the last few years, making it difficult for me to have all the time I’d like to spend there photographing. So if I were to pick one city combining all, that would be Istanbul, a city with rich history, incredible topography, warm people, and great food.
(6) What is your personal relationship to cities and how do you perceive them as places in general?
I grew up and live in a small town, so usually I feel out of my scale in larger urban environments. This works in multiple ways : there are times that I might get crazy with traffic, gas, noise, etc., and other times that there are so many things to see and discover that I forget about how much time and energy can be lost in a big city. When I’m a tourist, I enjoy it almost everywhere. When I’m about to settle somewhere for a long time, things are more complicated.
(7) Regarding your project Back to Nowhere: What was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?
Back to Nowhere started as a twin book of Warn'd in Vain. W.I.V. is an Argonautica allegory about New York, B.T.N. is a parallel Cretan tale with the myth of Minotaur. It has images from my island between 2009-2017; the myth helped me to put some thoughts about my place in order, which otherwise would be a chaotic thing for me.
(8) Which project did you never finish?
All the projects are unfinished in my mind. Even if I’m trying to work on my projects in InDesign as future books, no matter if I publish something, I always want to change it again. So even if something has been printed and there's no undo action after the print, the will to think of more changes always leaves the projects in a floating state in my mind.
(9) What is that «one thing» you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?
I've missed a lot of challenging scenes for multiple reasons : sometimes I hesitated, sometimes I had no memory card or battery in the camera, other times the power mode was in OFF instead of ON, etc. There are many times I felt bad for not shooting something, but there's only one way to face this : to take the camera and go out to shoot again. You may lose something once, you may find something next time. Or not.
(10) If you could travel back / forth in time, what advice would you give your younger / older self?
If I could go back in time, I would do a lot of things differently. Some other things I’d do exactly the same. Whenever I think of things I did and I have regretted afterwards, I get disappointed in myself. So, there’s not much to do other than moving on with my errors and trying not to repeat them. I don't usually give advice to other people, so I avoid doing it to myself too.
(11) What do you prefer saying: To «take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?
I often say I «take a photograph» because it's similar to the Greek expression and my bad English usually follows my Greek, but I think the verb «make» is more accurate for what I’m trying to do. Even if a single image can be taken randomly, when a similar way is repeated deliberately, the whole process becomes more creative and less random or just a matter of luck, so in a way the image or the body of work is more made than taken.
(12) What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?
I've had some nice moments and some bad ones too. I’ve met some nice people that I photographed randomly and with 2 or 3 of them we met again. I had trouble with the police too in Greece, Spain, and Turkey. All these things are still in my memory, but maybe the most weird time was when I got beaten by 5 guys in NYC, ending up with a concussion and a blue eye.
(13) If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?
I used to draw with charcoal in the past. I play a bit of music (saz) too. But I’m not any good at both, so I think I would just meet my friends, swim, or climb on the mountains instead.
(14) How would you describe one of your pictures to a visually impaired person?
It depends if the person was blind since his/her birth or if he/she became blind at some point. I'm not good at describing things, but in the second case it would be less difficult to say something. Another thing is that I would feel completely uncomfortable if I had to describe an image to a blind person, I’d rather go listen to some music with her/him.
(15) What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?
I'm shooting mostly on weekends and try to travel 1-2 times per year whenever it's possible. I have 2-3 projects in InDesign, which I’m not sure if they are projects yet or if I’ll have to reform them. I guess at some point everything will have to be reformed. My last trip was to Berlin, the next one will be to Istanbul. As for future plans, I’m hoping that the world will live in peace, but I’m not optimistic about it.
Thank you, Charalampos.
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Images
1–19 Charalampos Kydonakis, Back to Nowhere, New York City, New York (US) 2014–2017.
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