Gomma Photography Grant 2021
Office View
Photographer
Stefanos Kouratzis
Office View
01 Feb, 2022
For years, the football pitch next door to my office - still used by teams and track athletes for practice - had been in overall decline. My desk being on the 6th floor gave me the advantage of having an almost bird’s eye view when the remodeling started. For days, layers of old pitch grass, gravel and sand were loaded on trucks till an empty space was left occupying the area. The pitch itself changed and a new empty canvas was revealed. The stadium itself was going through some sort of transfiguration. It was making its presence even more striking, as if it was struggling for a way to breathe. Suddenly Miró, Kandinsky, Rodchenko and everything I had seen, studied, read- every poem, novel, picture, painting, and social or artist movement- was there, filling my frame. Seeing the pitch abstractly turned into a daily game. By carefully selecting fragments, the landscape was transformed into something completely new, with its own dynamics. From this process came questions: What am I looking at, why do I see it? There is a dialog and I’m not sure the dialog includes me. Its language isn’t necessarily easy, but the questions are clearly the same.
About the photographer
Stefanos Kouratzis
Stefanos Kouratzis (b. 1975, Athens, Greece) is a photographer living and working in (The Republic of) Cyprus since 2000. Studied at Focus, School of Art Photography, Video and New Technologies (Athens, Greece, 1994-97) and took online courses from MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York) and Magnum Photos In 2018, he participated at the 16th Venice Biennale of Architecture part of the Cyprus Pavilion (I Am Where You Are) with three photographic projects. For his work has received international awards and distinctions from organizations such as PDN, IPA, PX3, Fujifilm Euro Press Awards (Cyprus) etc. Has covered major stories, photographically and journalistic, in hostile zones, including war and natural disasters (Lebanon War 2006, Gaza Strip, Iran, Bam City earthquake) and he was embedded on a USS aircraft carrier during the operation “Iraqi Freedomâ€. Has travelled to a number of countries and covered stories. Over the years has collaborated with international media organizations including AFP, Reuters, Associated Press, Xinhua, France24, Arte (France) and BBC Radio. His articles (Journalistic and on Photography) have been published in Cyprus, Greece, USA, England and Poland and his photos are in books and private collections in Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Brazil. The way he constantly explores Photography as medium, makes his work quite diverse, multidimensional and multi-layered as he constantly balances between long-term projects and exploring different realms of expression.
