Iceland F O K I O N
Z I S S I A D I S
Iceland F O K I O N
Z I S S I A D I S
Iceland, 10/10, Icelandic Nature through the eyes of a Greek A Publisher’s publication © of photographs: Fokion Zissiadis © of texts: the authors ISBN 000-000-000-000 Thessaloniki, 2014
Iceland
Icelandic Nature through the eyes of a Greek
Photographs by
FO K I O N Z I SS I A D I S
Introductory text
Text by Egill Helgason
As I studied the photographs taken by Fokion Zissiadis during his ten-day trip to Iceland this summer, it occurred to me, almost without prompting, that the force of these landscapes lies above all in the allegorical metaphors they evoke. In the very real magic of these extreme geophysical phenomena, and the stark contrasts of the Icelandic landscape, Fokion finds a mythical interpretation in which: ...velvet concavities form a geography of moulds, clouds take the form of steam from a locomotive, waterfalls flow like the beards of deities, the remains of ships or ‘ships of the air’ are transformed into alien monsters or biblical arks, moored like satellite dishes, earth and sky – solid and fluid – acquire the same material density, while the springs bubbling up from the entrails of the earth flow down into a sea of rocks ... Fokion’s landscapes seem to create their own legends, tales of battles between giants and titans, with what remains of these battles now as hard as stone, as precious stone!
Thalea Stefanidou Art Historian and Critic - Curator
This work presents a selection of my photographs of Icelandic nature and its wonders during the summer season. In August 2013 I dedicated ten days to travelling more than 5.000 kilometres, covering almost the whole area of the country. Accompanied by an expert Icelandic guide, I photographed mainly landscapes but also remains of the human civilization captivated by Iceland’s nature, found dotted here and there among those spectacular landscapes. This itinerary yielded a harvest of more than 500 photographs of Iceland in summer – as seen through the mind, eye and soul of a travelling Greek photographer. Leaving behind me the ripe and ancient land of Greece, at the season when its beauty is most ravishing, I answered the call of a younger, more primitive and rugged world – one which has totally seduced my senses and captured my heart for ever! No doubt I shall return… Fokion Zissiadis
Coincidentia oppositorum
The black-and-white versions of the photographs taken by Fokion Zissiadis in Iceland indicate a shift in the photographer’s attention, away from the light of the Mediterranean, the light of Apollo, to the darkness of night, the realm of Pluto. In their creation of a narrative that has much more to do with recollection and memory than what we would call recorded experience, these black-and-white works are more open to ambivalence and oneiric associations, highlighting all the variations and transformations of matter in the absolute contrast between the white of ice and the black of volcanic lava. A contrast, in other words, which underlies a visual reconciliation of opposing parts – as the attempt at a comprehensive sense of lived experience defines a space in which opposites converge in a poetic blending and merging.
Thalea Stefanidou Art Historian and Critic - Curator
LIST OF PLATES (under construction)
Sandstorm Odadahraun by Dyngjufjoll
Pumice fields Solvahraun
Lunarscape on Earth Krepputunga
Vik Island Reynisfjara beach
Mountain Pillars Dyrholaey cliff
Low Tide, Low Mist Stokksnes
Motion against stillness Jokulsa a Fjollum river
The golden waterfall Gullfoss
Exploding geysir Strokkur
Low Tide Faskrudsfjordur fjord
Markafljot river with the Westmann islands in the far background Vestmannaeyjar
The Locomotive Skeidararsandur
Seljalandsfoss waterfalls
Panoramic view of lake Frostastadavatn Frostastadavatna
Panoramic view of Raudaskal crater Mountain Hekla
Sigoldufossar waterfalls Tungnaargljufur canyon
Lava fields Eldhraun
The most photographed house in Iceland Arnastrapi harbor
Boiling mud holes Namaskard
Glacier lagoon F ja lls a r l o n
Ice chunk collection 1 Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon beach
Nature’s toys Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon beach
Ice chunk collection 2 Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon beach
Kirkjufell waterfalls
Budir church
Gullfoss waterfall
Portrait of the Icelandic pony
Marching stones Herdubreid Mountain
Dettifoss waterfall
Floating icebergs Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon
Airplane shell (Douglas Dakota DC-3 C 117) Solheimasandur
Fokion Zissiadis was born in Thessaloniki in 1956. He studied architecture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and went on to do a Masters degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia USA, graduating in 1983. His career to date has been in the hotel and tourism sector, continuing the family tradition as a shareholder in the well-known Sani Resort in Halkidiki and Vice President of Sani S.A. He first took an interest in photography – mainly photographing buildings and urban landscapes – during his years as an architecture student. Later it was nature, on a small or large scale, which became his narrative priority, while he gradually developed more personal, interpretative views of the landscapes he sought to capture. His photography expressed a desire to preserve a wide-angle ‘view through a personal window’ on the world around him. An active man with a passion for the natural world and a love of adventure, he planned journeys to particular destinations where nature reveals the primitive building blocks of which she is made, where the great age of the natural landscape is to be seen, where the visitor is challenged to engage fully and completely with the natural world around him. His photographic work covers a wide range of geological phenomena and diverse terrains: deserts, glaciers, savannahs, volcanoes, rivers, seas, mountain ranges and uplands. He has visited and photographed locations as varied as Peking, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, the capital cities of Europe, Egypt, Patagonia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, the Bahamas, Israel, Cappadocia, Constantinople, Malta, Oman, Qatar, Dubai and, most recently, Iceland. His photographs use a keen geometrical sense to interpret the quintessence of the landscape with all those features through which the genius loci is expressed. Through his personal photographic idiom, Fokion Zissiadis expresses his own aesthetic sense of moment and place. The dwarfed human figures almost always included in his photographic compositions create a strong sense of the insignificance of man when confronted with the grandeur and majesty of the natural world. On all his photographic journeys he is accompanied by his lifetime partner and advisor - his wife Mata Tsolozidi Zissiadis.
Contact: fokion@otenet.gr | 30 Imvrou str., 552 36 Panorama, Thessaloniki
ARTISTIC AND EDITORIAL DIRECTION
Marios Tériade Eleftheriadis Professor of Art Printmaking École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Limoges, France
TEXTS
Egill Helgason Thalea Stefanidou Art Historian & Critic – Curator
TRANSLATIONS
Christopher Markham PROOFREADING
Sofia Eftihiadou P.A. TO FOKION ZISSIADIS
Εleni Strataki GUIDES IN ICELAND
Sigurður Hrafn Stefnisson DESIGN
Red Creative COLOR IMAGE PROCESSING
CCG DUOTONES
Sotiris Yiannakopoulos PRINTING
Skordopoulos BINDING
Next S.A. SPECIAL CONSTRUCTIONS
Moutsiaras George Next S.A. Vellas. S. - Raspaskou.S. S. A.
All copies are hand numbered by the author
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