Please introduce yourself—what is your name, where are you from, what do you do?
My name is Melina Papageorgiou. I am an artist from Greece, living in Berlin, Germany. I work around the concept of accessibility, materiality and awareness of space.
What is your relationship with photography, and how did you get into it?
The camera for me is a tool, which allows me to collect images systematically. In my family, where I grew up, there were a lot of pictures and story telling about our family and friends. It was a way of communication between the family members that were living in different places. Through that time, images already had a big impact on me.
What do you think triggers you to photograph in a certain moment? Is it planned or solely driven by intuition
Nonsense, common sense, and questioning our way of living. In my works, if planned or not planned out, it is driven by intuition and the continuity of my work practice.
What is the story you want your pictures to tell?
Drive emotions, in the best case.
Which city would you like to visit the most, and why?
Seoul—I want to visit an old friend who lives there. We studied photography in Berlin together and we used to share our working and living spaces. While dinners took place, we would talk about the food we ate and enjoyed it the most. And then New York City. I have visited the US several times, but never New York—I'm planning a trip in Autumn this year (2023).
What is your personal relationship to cities, and how do you perceive them as places in general?
Cities for me are the people, and relationships; good and bad buildings. l love your title «all cities are beautiful». Relating to it, I like to think of a city with good qualities such as equality, justice and friendly environments.
Regarding your project I used to look at the sky: what was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?
I somehow lost interest in taking photos in the city during the pandemic 2020, so I decided to focus on the ground, the street. I wanted to work on one specific subject matter, something monotone. That was the mood during that time. I was curious to see how the asphalted street looks like more closely. I also liked the idea of walking, the accessibility to the street I had.
Which project did you never finish?
One project I started working on during a workshop in Kavala, Greece, in 2018, at Lucy Art Residency. It was a workshop with Void publishing, curated by Nikolas Ventourakis, tutored by Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt, with Stefania Orfanidou. The project was about seabins that collect public pollution in oceans. Although it turned out to be a great collective book at that time, I still want to continue photographing seabins in other marinas.
What is that one thing you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?
Nothing really, I always wish I had done more.
If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?
Do the thing that makes you happy without awaiting validation. Look at as much art as you can.
What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?
«Take» perhaps, it makes more sense to me. Thinking that I'm taking a photograph from something that is there, with a camera.
What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?
Working with the women in my series burkini—public bathing», in Abu Dhabi, 2015–2017.
If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?
Performance and theatre studies.
How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?
Let's say it's something I see and take, a frame, that is not bigger than if you open your arms and make a square and imagine with some prospective two or three foot steps away. It is asphalt, the ground with a street mark. It's gray, a dark color, cold, winter. I photographed it at night.
What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?
I'm working on photographing a garden in coherence with old paintings.
Thank you, Melina!
What is your personal relationship to cities, and how do you perceive them as places in general?
Cities for me are the people, and relationships; good and bad buildings. l love your title «all cities are beautiful». Relating to it, I like to think of a city with good qualities such as equality, justice and friendly environments.
Regarding your project I used to look at the sky: what was your intention, and how did you come up with the idea?
I somehow lost interest in taking photos in the city during the pandemic 2020, so I decided to focus on the ground, the street. I wanted to work on one specific subject matter, something monotone. That was the mood during that time. I was curious to see how the asphalted street looks like more closely. I also liked the idea of walking, the accessibility to the street I had.
Which project did you never finish?
One project I started working on during a workshop in Kavala, Greece, in 2018, at Lucy Art Residency. It was a workshop with Void publishing, curated by Nikolas Ventourakis, tutored by Klara Källström and Thobias Fäldt, with Stefania Orfanidou. The project was about seabins that collect public pollution in oceans. Although it turned out to be a great collective book at that time, I still want to continue photographing seabins in other marinas.
What is that one thing you have never managed to photograph and is now gone for good?
Nothing really, I always wish I had done more.
If you could travel back/forth in time, what advice would you give your younger/older self?
Do the thing that makes you happy without awaiting validation. Look at as much art as you can.
What do you prefer saying: «to take a photograph» or to «make a photograph», and why?
«Take» perhaps, it makes more sense to me. Thinking that I'm taking a photograph from something that is there, with a camera.
What is the most interesting experience you have had while photographing?
Working with the women in my series burkini—public bathing», in Abu Dhabi, 2015–2017.
If it wasn’t for photography, what would you be interested in doing instead?
Performance and theatre studies.
How would you describe one of your pictures to a blind person?
Let's say it's something I see and take, a frame, that is not bigger than if you open your arms and make a square and imagine with some prospective two or three foot steps away. It is asphalt, the ground with a street mark. It's gray, a dark color, cold, winter. I photographed it at night.
What are you currently working on, and—if there is—what is your next project or journey?
I'm working on photographing a garden in coherence with old paintings.
Thank you, Melina!
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