A selection of twelve photographs, 2010-2018

The twelve photographs in Antigone Kourakou’s Phenomena series, reminds us of the inexhaustible capacity photography has to transmute reality.

They discretely lead us to the threshold of a quite unanticipated, silent introspection. By stirring up deep-rooted images and moments, Kourakou’s photography prompts to imagine. The elliptical description of situations and persons, define moments whose completion requires our contribution. We need to restore perspective, to compose faces from lines and shapes, so as to, ultimately, discover the associative relationships that articulate the photographer’s personal style.

Kourakou directs by minimally drawing from reality – faces, gestures, branches, leaves, thick shadows – and recomposes an enigmatic world. Looking at her photographs, we come to realize that what lies at the core of her work is not so much the reality she encounters, but the shaping of a balance between reality and fantasy, a balance which is always in keeping with the dynamic composition of her frames. [Costis Antoniadis – Emeritus Professor of Photography, UniWA]