Where does a photograph end? What intervenes from the moment
a series of pictures is taken until the moment it is printed? What happens
in a photographer's darkroom?
The Meta-photographs try to answer these kinds of questions. As their
title suggests, they are photographs that derive from other photographs,
in other words "extensions" of an original photograph which,
as it is printed, slowly changes form. These are not just "pictures
taken" but also "pictures constructed", pictures that reflect
the darkroom process of analogue photography, thus claiming freedom and
plasticity for the medium of photography itself.
As Gerhard Richter writes, “a photograph is like a small painting,
but it is not one. This property leads you to attempt to convert it into
a tableau”. Undoubtedly, in these Meta-photographs, the main catalyst
is the super-ego of painting, which pushes the photographer to overcome
the limits of his medium, to describe as accurately as possible the “here-now”
of the subject, the “me-here-now” of the artist’s body
as he develops the films and then prints them, changing times and diaphragms
on the enlarger, cutting test strips, washing the prints and then letting
them dry on the darkroom tiles.
So the Meta-photographs, beyond their main subject - the urban landscape
- explore simultaneously the truth of photography itself (what does it
mean to photograph, to develop, to print?) which tends to disappear under
the constant expansion of digital photography. At the same time they attempt
to depict the photographer's truth, his thoughts, his motions, his presence
behind the camera and the enlarger, as he struggles with his medium.
— Panayotis Papadimitropoulos
FeatureMeta-photographsGreek photographer Panayotis Papadimitropoulos delivers a text and examples of his re-worked photographs, where the artistry comes after the prints are made.View Images
Feature
Meta-photographs
Greek photographer Panayotis Papadimitropoulos delivers a text and examples of his re-worked photographs, where the artistry comes after the prints are made.
Meta-photographs
Greek photographer Panayotis Papadimitropoulos delivers a text and examples of his re-worked photographs, where the artistry comes after the prints are made.
Trending this Week

As Immense as the Sky
Calling the past into the present, Meryl McMaster’s otherworldly self-portraits draw on her Indigenous and European heritage, channeling photography as a tool to reclaim and reimagine these intertwined histories.

Announcing the 2021 LensCulture Art Photography Award Winners!
Announcing the winners of the 2021 Art Photography Awards! Discover the 41 remarkable photographers who have been selected for their vision, innovation and creativity.

Companion Pieces: New Photography 2020
The latest “New Photography” exhibition at MoMA has migrated online to offer up an immersive, digital experience of the work and process of eight artists asking the question: How do images speak to each other?

Conceptual Photographs, the Neutral in Realism, and More
A short but wide-ranging conversation: from tactile, tangible connections to the photographic medium, to establishing an honest dialogue with portraiture.

The Americans
This is the photo book that redefined what a photo book could be — personal, poetic, real. First published in 1959, Robert Frank’s masterpiece still holds up — the selection of photos, and their sequence and pacing is fresh, rich, generous, and...

26 Black-and-White Photography Favorites from LensCulture
LensCulture’s editors revisit 26 of the most popular recent articles that feature black-and-white photography – portfolios, essays, interviews, exhibitions and book reviews.