Antigone Kourakou’s recent work reminds us of the inexhaustible capacity photography has to transmute reality.

References to the history of photography abound and, working surreptitiously, they lead us to the threshold of a silent introspection, quite unexpected nowadays, when photographs targeting events and social issues urge us to judge, to think, to draw conclusions. In direct contrast to this condition, Kourakou’s photography prompts to imagine by stirring up deep-seated images and moments of our own lives.

The elliptical description of situations and persons in her photographs 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 on 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 what is happening when shooting as the shaping of a balance between reality and fantasy, a balance which is always in keeping with the dynamic composition of her frames. [Text: Costis Antoniadis / Emeritus Professor of Photography, UniWA]