GIANNIS MARAPAS (HELLAS) PORTRAITS 16/2- 15/3 1998 ERODOS CAFE-GALLERY PAVLOY MELA 21 / 269-242 DAILY 10.30-3.30 Born in Ptolemaida in 1966, Yannis Marapas studied cinematography at the Evgenia Hatzikou School and photography at the FOCUS School. He has been a member of the Photographic Circle. In 1995 he produced a hand-printed album entitled "Iconic Portraits". Iconic distortions. Rigid faces, that are and are not there. Alice in Wonderland. Metamorphoses. The idiosyncrasy of reality. Cross between the conscious and the sub-conscious. Actors during a performance transfused with an unnatural true light. A collection of faces, apportioned into 10 x 12.5 photographs: the ground glass of the large format camera becomes the eye of the photographer, analysing and controlling the real image within the symmetrical frames, constraining the sitters to a few moments of immobility (light-metering, regulating sharpness, selecting perspective, exchanging the ground glass screen for the film holder, lengthy exposure). Immobility that brings about changes in the usual 'natural' gaze of the subject and in his posture, albeit selected by the photographer. Yannis Marapas isolates his figures from the natural space, recreates his own reality, incorporates them into his world and, like a director, assigns each the role he judges most appropriate. He maintains absolute control over the relationship between photographer and sitter, harnessing to each of his images the natural character of the subject and in the end recording the vibrations this produces in him. Each act of photography is a ceremony that includes two or three clicks. The result is wholly truthful: the world of Marapas succeeds in taking shape and inspiring emotion. Athina Chroni