Vertical Time: Persefoneia


  • Photographer
    maro vandorou
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    Summer 2010
  • Technical Info
    Platinotypes on Gampi paper

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.

Story

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.

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