“The place was Silent and Aware” – P.C.Wren
The Genius Loci is a concept which dates to Ancient Roman times, it was believed that places are inhabited by Guardian Spirits. In modern times this term has been adapted to represent a personal feeling which a place emits to the visitor. I like to call it the Soul of the place or Essence. In recent years development has been one of the major issues we have in my country. When modern man-made structures are built something in the landscape changes forever. The blend of the new with the old makes the landscape lose its magic. There are still untouched places around the island and each time I visit I feel a connection and it feels like the place starts to communicate, with the right light and the right conditions, the place starts revealing its secrets and this is when the ‘Genius Loci’ comes alive and reveals itself. I believe that every place has its unique distinctive atmosphere, and with my skill, I must capture the essence of the place. It is easy just to document a scene, but I leave that to tourists. I recently came across a documentary about a British portrait and documentary photographer named Platon, and I was fascinated by his approach towards his sitters, now you might ask, what does Platon have to do with my genre of photography? I can still apply this philosophy to my work. One way I manage to extract the essence of the place is by removing all the distractions and by capturing the image with the long exposure technique, transforming the image into a journey beyond space and time and the scene becomes a Soul-scape. Platon aims to capture the truth, finding it deep within his subject and bring it out, the same I try to do with the places I capture. While scouting around the island, I often come across hidden gems, places which I never been before, I often stop and spend some time familiarizing myself with the place and absorb the atmosphere while taking a moment before starting to positioning the tripod and frame the scene. Most of the time it is the little things that characterize a place, it could be a simple rock formation or a manmade structure that blended with nature along the years, giving character to the place. It seems that anything manmade which has endured along the years becomes part of the landscape, and the landscape becomes a hybrid. This is one of the things I look for in my compositions and I am always looking around to find this type of hybrid scene. The little things that help me connect with the scene and remind me that the human influence over nature over time becomes relics and nature will claim it and restores balance.
With my previsualized image I know exactly where I am going, the next thing to do is setting the mood in post-processing, this is the process where I can transmit the sense of manifestation of the spirit and make it available to the world to see. Catching the ‘feeling’ comes naturally once the place starts opening up and when I stop to feel a natural silence it is that same feeling, what impressions it made on me which inspires me to create the final image. I have come to understand that photography is far from being a representation of reality but by interpreting that reality we can make the invisible visible.
All that remains.