why the night
LIA NALBANTIDOU
URBAN SECRET GARDEN why the night
2013
«I like to make a photograph. In most of my pictures; I, pretty much, pick the same standpoint. I don’t give to myself more than one choices. Frontal to my subject. One to one. That’s it. A subtle sound. The mirror is up. Sometimes the duration of the exposure is 10’, or 15’ or even 20’. Rarely, exposure time is a fragment of a second. That’s my relationship with time. Time has to have duration. Time cannot be instantaneous. When time is long, a truth is revealed. Only then, when time is long and the aperture stays open, a picture is being produced. I receive the contact sheets from the lab; bright segments of time from my last excursion into the night. Foreground, middleground, background. Space well organized and some light. The flash adds more light into the picture with a snapping sound.» For a while, the time frame of the shooting, 4.30 a.m. - 7.00 a.m., had been of immense importance. By seeking the dawn-walk motifs throughout the city, I discovered freedom in the unconscious set of mind of the hours before the conscious light. I was there, where dark turned into light through a sharp noise; there, where morning bird chirpings met last night’s laughs; there, where the mesmerizing buzz of the automobiles drowned the sound of the flash light. Floral patterns joggling with ancient ruins, car lights in central avenues, construction sites with distant buildings at sleep, a kite, a plastic bag; all in an attempt to build a body of photos and recreate a secret garden. Lia Nalbantidou Thessaloniki, April 2013
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Langada street Rooftop, Olympou street 01. Pier 4 - Port 02. Ex military camp Kodra 03. Parking lot, Forest Theater 04. Statue of Alexander the Great, Waterfront 05. Statue of Konstantinos G. Karamanlis, Waterfront 06. Construction site, Waterfront 07. Polytechniou street 08. Eastern Regional Moat, Phoenix settlement 09. Abandonded building, Pylaia 10. Diikitiriou Square 11. Ancient Agora 12. Friends of the Sea, Waterfront 13. Makedonia Palace 14. Ex military camp Kodra 15. Platform scale, Port 16. Super Market, Phoenix settlement 17. Shopping Plaza, Pylaia 18. Port 19. Hovel, Waterfront 20. Casa Bianca 21. Warehouse, Aretsou 22. Warehouse, Pylaia 23. Parking lot, recycling loading dock 24. Parking lot 25. Pylaia, South East Thessaloniki 26. Garden on the balcony, Nikis Avenue 27. Balcony, Pavlou Mela street 28. Park, Waterfront 29. Parking lot, Shopping Plaza - Pylaia 30. Mobile Home, Port 31. Parking lot, Shopping Plaza - Pylaia
Overpass, Nea Egnatia street
Urban Secret Garden – why the night is a limited edition portfolio of 34 photographs published in April 2013. Edition of 3 2 Presentation Proofs 1 Hors Commerce Proof All photographs and text by Lia Nalbantidou Printed on Velvet paper by Dot digital printing Graphic Design: Elias Skoulakos Production Consultant: Dimitris Nteirmentzidis Photography Digital Processing: Stratos Kalafatis all photographs taken in thessaloniki between 2010-2013 copyright Š lia nalbantidou 2013