Platinotypes on rare Japanese Gampi paper (17gr). Part of the “Vertical Time: Persefoneia” multisensory installation, presented by Murdoch Collections, fall of 2010 in Portland Oregon. Medium format camera, black and white film. Image size 10.25” x 10.25” hand coated and contact printed on tissue thin, radiant Gampi paper, stitched in silk (upper two corners) on 24” x 38” sheet of Gampi suspended with silk threads from gallery ceiling. The images in accordance with sacred geometry formed a circle of fragile platinum prints.
In spring of 2010 I traveled to my birthplace in Athens to collect photographic material for Vertical Time, a body of work exploring the process of transformation. To establish a visual vocabulary of abstract concepts, I turned to symbols and archetypes from my Hellenic roots. Soon, Persephone emerged as a haunting, unanticipated presence. I searched for her in Athens, in the ancient cemetery of Keramicos, but she was nowhere to be found; the city was in turmoil. I traveled 450 miles to the “Oracle of the Dead,†the Nekyomanteion of Acheron. Homer, in the Odyssey, referenced this site as the ruling seat of Hades and Persephone of the Underworld. I descended into the underground crypt with its 15 arches carved in rock: moldy darkness, overwhelming silence; all I could hear was my heartbeat. The light meter could not register measurable light. How was I to capture any images, her presence?
I was looking for Persephone at a particular moment in time: not the abducted innocent girl, but not yet the powerful queen of the Underworld, who would become the equal of Hades, judging the souls of humans. My Persephone is transforming; she is about to take the glistening, seductive pomegranate seeds Pluto is offering. I asked my logical mind to look the other way; “If it be your will†I murmured; I placed my beloved-vintage Rolleiflex on the muddy floor of the crypt, set the self-timer and walked toward the deepest crack on the wall, relinquishing control, surrendering.