– How and when did you become interested in photography?
I first became intrigued by the picture making process as a child, seeing my father document family trips on his old Nikon SLR. My involvement with photography became more serious during my time at university, where I became an active member of the university’s photographic society. It was during my time with Bristol Uni’s PhotoSoc that I was introduced into the world of film photography and I started developing my subsequent focus on black and white photography.
– Is there any artist/photographer who inspired your art?
I am particularly interested in the history and art of photography and greatly enjoy reading up on the subject and being introduced to new work. Inspiration has come from a long and varied list of photographers & art movements that would perhaps be impossible to completely list; the following are just some samples of my influences.
The work of many of the Magnum greats, from Henri Cartier-Bresson and Werner Bischof to Josef Kudelka and Jacob Aue Sobol has been instrumental in my development of composition & photographic vision. I have a particular affinity for the Japanese photographers of the “Provoke” era like Daido Moriyama and more recently been particularly influenced by the New Topographics movement and the work of Robert Adams and Henry Wessel.
The photographs attached to this submission are part of a series title “Urban Fragments” that I worked on in 2014-2017. This particular series is directly inspired by the work of one of my favourite photographers of all time, Harry Callahan.
– Why do you work in black and white rather than colour?
Black and white photography allows, in my opinion, for a more concrete focus on the interaction of light and form, which is one of my main sources of photographic interest. The absence of colour often allows for nuances of light and texture that could otherwise elude the viewer to be brought to the surface. It is a way to subvert and view under a new light the world us, something that to this day I still find fascinating.
It also happens to be the case that some of the photography that has most fascinated me over the years was in the early photojournalism and photo essay tradition, and the use of the black and white medium but those older masters of the artform has provided most of the visual and cultural context that I would like to place my work in.
– How much preparation do you put into taking a photograph/series of photographs?
Working on a series of photographs for me often revolves around identifying a subject or concept of interest, as well as a particular technique that I would like to employ throughout the series so as to achieve a specific desired visual result as well as maintain the same visual signature throughout the series. As I work almost exclusively with film this often involves settling on a particular film stock,
camera and often lens choice for a series, as I feel that is conducive to maintaining the same shooting style and mentality throughout.
For the work shown here, I employed multiple exposures in-camera to create abstractions out of architectural details. I would identify a scene/building/feature of interest and then photograph it twice on the same frame of film, revolving the camera by 180 degrees between exposures. Contrast control in post-processing was then employed to emphasize the interplay of forms and textures created by the multiple exposures. My goal for this particular series was to isolate familiar details of the build environment around me and use them as building blocks for a new, abstracted forms that refocus the eye on details often passed by.
– Where is your photography going? What projects would you like to accomplish?
I am currently in the process of re-evaluating some of my approaches to photographic work and would like to, in the future, embark on larger scale photographic projects that build not only on my existing interests and themes but also incorporate more of the human experience in them.
Website: http://odysseaspappas.co.uk/
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
© Odysseas Pappas
