Panos Kokkinias

Panos Kokkinias’ work is rooted in reality but enables leaps of the imagination and lays open a flux of interpretive possibilities. All his photographs are first and foremost spaces of reflection and projection, but also voyeuristic scenes impregnated by a sense of expectancy and inner tension. In his highly charged intimate, almost claustrophobic renderings of domestic spaces, sublime sprawling landscapes or dramatic, nocturnal cityscapes there is always a latent sense of malaise or disquiet, a brooding, dark sensibility and the occurrence of some unexpected element or incident that disrupts both the connection with reality and the aesthetic gratification that his work also proffers.

Most of his photographs are carefully staged, or more accurately, directed, but not to the extent that they seem forced or contrived, rather, the mis-en-scene is just that necessary to create a sense of rupture in the real. As a result, his photographs give the impression of being caught in a seeming continuum between fiction and actuality, between possibility and impossibility, certainty and uncertainty. In that sense, Kokkinias’ work always feels as if it is on the ‘edge’ of something, and the characters that often appear in his photographs look as if they are on the verge of crossing some threshold - in the metaphorical sense - though quite what that is remains unclear.

(Extract from "Unpredictable Incidents in Familiar Surroundings" by K. Gregos)

Submitted by Xippas