ZERO TEN

Scenes of the microcosm we call family Mytas' project entitled ''Zero Ten" is a personal diary, an experiential approach to his children's growing-up through their first decade of life, while at the same time it reveals the decennial photographic evolution of his perspective. It is basically, as he himself stated, "a dynamic reference to childhood through the dual perspective οf the observer photographer/father". The common scenes οf daily family life that all parents experience are his source of inspiration that compels him to create a children's world, dreamy and ambiguous, with visual symbols and references springing from his extensive knowledge of photography. Mytas takes pictures οf a carefree, optimistic and quite often, comical childhood. In some of the close-ups the bodies οf the children and their expressive movements fill the frame and create an interesting play of form, while in others he combines poses and gestures with the available geometry of the surrounding area: the strange movement of the little one with the adjacent light that dissolves the cohesion of the floor, the folds of the sheet that penetrate the body of the baby diagonally, the associations of the picture in which the carefree expression of the child is disturbed by the spikiness of the prickly cactus, or the movement of Kostis' body on the beach in perfect harmony with the lines of the horizon. In some shots the body and expression of the woman/mother is used as an outline that defines the depth of the picture and creates an atmosphere οf warmth, peace and protection. The physical and emotional bonds with his family and the acceptance οf the uniqueness of this relationship are depicted through time with short photographic statements that fully demonstrate the potential οf photographic language to transform even the simplest memories of family moments. The work of Mytas pays yet further tribute to childhood and shows that the use of expressive means to reveal your feelings and admiration for this age, inevitably leads to an impressive artistic result, worthy of admiration and deeper interpretation. His influences are obvious and derive from the knowledge he has acquired throughout his long-standing involvement in photography. From Stieglitz it could be said he borrowed the aesthetic approach to the object, from Callahan the elaborate, formal and carefully studied compositions in combination with the random snapshot, while Meatyard enchanted him with the somatical movement and his timeless reality and Sally Mann with the sensuality of a child's body and the immeasurable affluence of childhood. The means of expression Mytas uses are purely photographic. His quest is composed of "traditionally" powerful codes, which have contributed to the evolution οf the history of photography and still shed light οn its modernist values. In ''Zero Ten", Mytas says more about the pictures of his children and less about the children themselves, thus avoiding any commentary on his family life. This is what actually differentiates him from the modern tendency to deny the photographic "charisma" while it simultaneously reinforces and highlights the ideological approach to the subject and the critical introspection of the family environment that make the viewer an active participant. Nina Kassianou