In the Same Space

In the Same Space, is a photographic dialogue with my grandfather’s Andreas Vourloumis (1910-199) paintings of Athens and the island of Aegina. My grandfather was part of the dynamic 1930’s generation of Greek artists. He was self-taught and his art was driven by capturing everyday life in the city. On his daily walks he worked very much like a documentary photographer, sketching buildings, pedestrians and daily interactions in the city. I used my mobile phone for this project as a way to mirror his own use of the sketch book in his daily routine. At the time I began this project I was working as a photojournalist covering the economic crisis for international media. I was motivated to begin this dialogue with my grandfather's paintings as a way to celebrate my hometown and it's people in a more positive way. The pairings are influenced by color, form, light and narrative context but mostly I was intent on reflecting the emotive state of my grandfather’s paintings. This series is a meditation on urban change, on spaces or places that have been lost, but also a tribute to my grandfather who never knew I became a photographer. In that sense, it is highly personal and emotional, and at the same time a social and anthropological take on a city that has undergone rapid transformation in the last fifty years.