A photographic narrative that has its roots in its creator’s need for wandering, understanding and imprinting people – and their stories – constitutes his Marabou project Constantinou. This photographic project is not just a series of images from the world around us, but the result of a personal travel, a perpetual search for human experience, the moment that hides the essence of existence. And this journey is not only about geographical distances, but also the most profound mental pursuits of the photographer himself.
After all, Sofikite’s Marabou It does not accidentally carry this name. Like the first poetic collection of the poet of the seas, his own work is a journey to real people, in invisible aspects and in … forgotten words. “Kavvadias was a body of stories. He not only wrote his own; he wrote what was narrated to him. That’s exactly what I wanted to do, through the picture. To become an intermediate, a “carrier” of experiences and lives from the Aegean islands, “the photographer explains, speaking to the 104.9 fm agency, the Athens/Macedonian News Agency radio station. “I don’t just travel to see, but to understand. And it’s not always easy to understand. The pictures are the closest you can offer. It’s not always the truth, but it’s your part of it, “he says.
Sofikitis’s Marabou was born in 2018, when the well -known photographer began traveling to the 65 inhabited Aegean islands, recording faces, voices, looks. He was not looking for “photogenic” people, but those who carried stories. Oral, experiential, almost poetic stories. His photos are neither tourist nor recorders. There are concentrated testimonies that – like the poet’s lyrics – hide more than they say. “Many times I don’t even keep the machine. First I know, talk, learn. Photo, for me, starts with the conversation […] If you do not connect with people, you cannot capture anything authentic. Every photo is the result of this relationship, the trust you win. The picture is always a recognition of what exists, even if it is invisible to others, ”he adds.
“The Aegean,” says the photographer, “is full of voices that are heard and slowly fading. People living there have a unique look in the world. Their look is full of stories, full of history. Their island It’s a little world on its own, and I want to capture it through the human presence. “
His artistic language is simple and deeply symbolic. Light from the side, a person in the spotlight, the rest of the context more vague. These images do not reveal everything – only what they choose to illuminate themselves. “When I photograph, I can’t record all the life of a man. He chooses what will reveal to me – and I try to render it with respect. It’s like giving me a verse. And I build a picture around him. “
For him, after all, photography is an act of exposure and overcoming himself. “Art, if you think about it, connects people without the need for words. You can understand a man just looking at his look. And I believe that photography has this power. If you manage to get in the moment, you can record something that has true value. “
This project led him to the 15th Havana Biennale, where he presented 25 large portraits – half of Cuba, half of the Aegean. There, in one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city, his works were exhibited in public space – just as Kavvadia’s poems were traveled: freely!
His relationship With the people he is photographing he is deep and personal. From the images of fishermen to the remote islands to the portraits of the Cubans in Havana, the meeting with the other is the foundation of his work. “Going to Cuba, I realized something very simple: all people, regardless of place, have the same basic needs and dreams. Cultures are different, but souls look much more than we think. “
Sofikitis does not seek exotic or impressive, but the human truth. And as he speaks, he reminds him of that phrase of the poet who says: We do not travel to get somewhere, but to meet something inside us. He is not in a hurry to arrive. Neither in his photos, nor in the people who make up them. Like Kavvadias, he stays a little longer, to understand. And in the end, he may also write – with pictures instead of words – his own poetic collection, open to the world.
With the same perseverance that Marabou flies perpetually in the air, Sofikitis continues to travel And to photograph, to capture the uniqueness of human experience through the impenetrable veil of time. And as he leaves the Aegean – or where he travels elsewhere – he leaves behind images that live to always remind us of the deepest and most true: man, in all his manifestations. “Marabou is the symbol of the endless search. It is the bird that never arrives, always flying, but never rests, “he concludes.
Constantine Sofikitis’s photographic gaze invites us to ask ourselves: How often do we stop looking around us with care and respect for nature and man? How often We recognize the stories hiding behind the eyes of the people we meet? The photographer invites us to look deeper, to hear the sound of the stories that remain invisible, but also to let the photo give us a new sense of reality.