The magic of long exposure pictures comes from the fact that the time’s dimension can be imprisoned and made visible. This gives life to a three-dimensional representation in two dimensions.
Vassilis Tangoulis, an award-winning Greek photographer, never intended to bring reality into his images, but to show the passing of time, evoking the surreal and minimalist world that floats in his dreams, quite but disturbing.
Black and white dreams, simple figures, objects or artifacts placed in wide negative spaces.
And in dreams time often doesn’t flow in a linear way. Time may be motionless, or we may feel that we are witnessing an event at several points at once. Tangoulis has discovered that he can bring this time-out-of-joint feeling into his landscapes.
“I tried to take realistic photos but never felt satisfied. At that moment neutral density filters came to my life and a new surrealistic world –the world I always see in my dreams- could be captured by my camera.”
Black and white then gives him the power to focus the viewer’s interest on a subject, a tree, a small house on a hill, without the color distraction. This leads the viewer to build his own story, as he wanders through the space of his images.
Each image is a perfect balance between inspiration and technical approach, dream and experimentation. Taking a picture is still a serious matter. After all, Ansel Adams said, “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”
You can visit his website and follow him on Instagram to discover more.
