I was born in heraklion city, Crete, Greece. I lived there my first 18 years then I moved to Athens for studying public administration in Panteion university of social and political sciences. During the second year of my studies I raised my interest in photography or in pictures in general. I started saving some money and with the first chance I bought my first Dslr camera. It wasn’t something special as a camera, but it’s important for me having it. Soon I started looking what all that buttons do, by shooting and trying, almost alone.
At the same time I started sharing my shots on internet. After some time I realized that taking some shots it’s not what I really like. I had pictures in my mind that I couldn’t make them with just shooting with a camera. So my next Step was pretty clear for me.. I needed to learn image processing. Actually I had a very basic knowledge by my childhood years, when I was trying to digitally chance wheels to my father’s car. I started searching some software and that I could start using for making my own dreamlike images. I did search for some techniques but didn’t find I was excatly looking for. This was a really difficult stage. After spending some weeks I started create my first picture. I was pretty excited, not because of the result but I realized that I had the chance to create what I had in my mind. When I shared my first creations on Flickr people raised their interest, and after enough images I had my first interviews and book appearances came.
Style and techniques / Surreal photography
I usually create pictures with some moody, strange environments, maybe and unusual colors. I suffer from color blindness, therefore I can’t really see the true colors. In the past I used to work only with black and white pictures. Now I’m trying the colors as well, hoping that I won’t do something excess.
There are only one or two characters into my images. My basic line to this is that I want to create a dreamlike picture, strange world where our protagonist should be alone, without having someone to share it’s moment. That’s an important factor for me. My personal sight of view is that, moments are mostly made to be shared. We share moments each other everyday and create some feelings, mood, etc, together. Beside this there are some daydreaming, or just dream moments where we are alone without having the ability to share our fantasy picture with others. This, currently, can be done only be explaining with words. My work is based mostly on that moments. Sharing some pictures where you can’t actually meet, or it’s extraordinary to meet, in real life.
A lot of times I considered as Surrealist or Photographer. I only say that I just make pictures, as I use elements from different sides. That said yes, I take pictures but I use them for creating something new. Pictures can contain a surreal feeling.
As for techniques I use what is mostly common as image manipulation techniques. I use Photoshop with all of it’s tools such as masks, layer masks, clone tool, and blending modes. They are all useful for a nice result at your creations. The last year I found myself asking some more knowledge, and I started exploring the worlds of 3D. I’m planning to blend my future works with photographs along with 3D elements for creating some more complex, or extraordinary scenes. Hope one day to make some really great pictures using all of my achieved knowledge. [Official Website]
