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Matinee: 'At Home'
26 May 2018
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 241st in our series of Saturday matinees today: At Home by Nick Kontostavlakis.
We woke up this morning from an ambitious dream in which we had traveled to an old mansion that had seen better days to visit an old woman who had also seen better days cared for by a staff of people who had rigged the house so she could get from one floor to the other without using the staircase that had seen better days of its own.
Pretty much how the better days go around here, come to think of it. With us as the old woman.
The adventure was coming to an end when we woke up and realized we were at home.
We made a cup of coffee, descended into the bunker (using the stairs) and continued our two-day hunt for a matinee. And the first thing we saw was At Home by Nick Kontostavlakis.
It's natural to discard the first thing you see just because it's the first thing you see. You wonder what else is out there. Not just with matinees, either. It's the reason we leave home, why we change jobs, why we leave lovers.
But then it hits us.
Here's how Kontostavlakis, a fine art photographer, puts it:
I am Nick, a freelance photographer.
In the past 10 years I've been travelling and photographing around the world.
What I realized, though, was that I had gradually stopped seeking new destinations. I found a place that offered me a sense of stability and warmth where my inspiration and creativity amplified. Nature in all its forms was still surrounding me: Snowy landscapes, deep canyons, lakes and rivers, vast forests and of course the sea.
In the end, I think I found my destination, a place that has nurtured me and has always been so close to me. That makes me feel home!
Born in 1983 in Zakynthos, Greece, Kontostavlakis attended photography classes in Athens while studying engineering. He exhibited at Athens Photo Festival 2010, where he was honored as the Young Greek Photographer by the Hellenic Center for Photography. In 2014, his work was exhibited in New York at the Agora Gallery. And his career took off.
"My photographs are not meant to represent reality or specific locales," he says. "Instead, they depict my own subjective feelings about nature, its wildness and unpredictability and the mystery and psychic emanations of places and peoples."
The gorgeous footage was captured mostly with a Canon C200 digital cinema camera and Angenieux 30-90 EZ-1 with drone footage from a DJI Inspire and Zenmuse X5s. The timelapses were captured by Nikon dSLRs. Kontostavlakis took some of the timelapse and all of the drone images.
The text, read by Dimitris Kaplanis, was written by Cheryl Rock.
In addition to his Website (reload if it doesn't come right up), Kontostavlakis has also done a short film featuring his Portfolio:
That, of course, shows all the fabulous places Kontostavlakis has taken his camera on his world journey.
But there's no place like home.