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George Digalakis

George Digalakis was born and raised in Athens, Greece, where he still lives today. His first contact with photography was back in 1974, when he received a "Nettar" as a gift from his father. However, it was only in 2011 when he first studied photography at "Photoeidolo", and became acquainted with classic and contemporary photographers, that he realized this medium would offer him a gateway from reality, and enable him to express his inner world.His true love for the art of photography was finally conveyed.

Minimalism, both as an art movement and as a philosophy of life, has influenced his work. The influence from minimalist photographers, such as Michael Kenna can be seen clearly in his seascapes. On the other hand the street photography of Harry Callahan and Giacomo Bruneli, to name only a few, with the extensive use of dark tones highlighting the melancholic mood of their work, has clearly left an imprint on his urban imagery.

George rarely tries to capture the moment andfinds that by ignoring reality he can best convey his inner vision and underlying emotions. He sees the use of black and white as a step away from reality, facilitated further by the addition or removal of parts of the image.Modern technology allows an extensive manipulation of the images and his work relies a lot on post-processing. Another reason he works in black and white is that he considers color to be a distraction from the main building blocks of photography: shape, lines, forms, and tones.

Water, an element he deeply loves, can be found in most of his works, but never as their central theme. Rather, he uses the water and the sky as a canvas on which he places his subjects. They are the means through which he tries to convey emotions and to balance the image.

For the past few years he has been working primarily on his project 'waterscapes', which is characterized by a square frame, a minimalistic and sometimes surrealistic approach, high contrast, order, and a peaceful, yet often sorrowful and lonesome atmosphere. He uses long exposure to move the images further away from reality, introducing the sense of passing time and eliminating the details from the background, thus highlighting his subjects.

At the same time, he is still experimenting with other themes. He finds himself particularly drawn to urban photography, with water reflections and bicycles a recurring subject.

Currently he's a member of "Unwrap" a small photographic group based in Athens.