Bored Panda reached out to Dimitris to learn more about his photographs. As the photographer doesn’t stay in one place and his photos are captured in places like Athens, Munich, Crete, and Stockholm, we were wondering how the diverse environments shaped his perspective on photography and influenced his visual style.
“I spent my childhood in Athens and Munich and my teenage and university years in Crete. I was then not directly involved with photography, but I think that living in different places and countries these years gave me an interest to continue exploring the world. I moved to Stockholm in 2004 to work as a medical doctor and in 2010 I got involved with artistic photography. Living in Sweden as a medical doctor means a lot of personal time, in difference to being a medical doctor in most other countries of the world. So I had and have time in Sweden to explore photography, which was very crucial in my development as a photographer.”
Dimitris also commented on specific aspects of traveling and experiencing different cultures that he found most inspiring for his photographic work.
“I guess traveling is for me quite essential for my photographic work. Of course, I shoot a lot in Stockholm too, but I used to travel abroad 2 times a year, 2 weeks each time, and during those trips, I shoot all day and every day. So traveling for me means having the freedom to live as a photographer, while in Sweden I shoot best case 3-6 hours per week. Experiencing different cultures during my travels means not as much as the act of traveling, though, since what I focus on as a photographer is not directly related to the places and cultures themselves,” wrote Dimitris.
We also asked Dimitris to describe the transition from taking touristic photos to exploring artistic photography. He replied: “In December 2009, we got the first snow of the year in Stockholm. It was an intense snowstorm and in a few hours, streets were full of snow. I went to see some friends and on my way back I slipped on the snow and got a very bad fracture in my lower leg. 6 hours of operation, metal bars and screws in my leg, and 2 months in bed was the result.
After that, I started going again, slowly, me who was always running to go somewhere, not to lose time. My vision changed in some magical way and it was a couple of months after that I started seriously with photography. I then created a Flickr account, not knowing anything about artistic photography, and by chance, I came across the work of some great street photographers. I got really captivated by artistic photography, specifically street photography, then. I guess what captivated me was the potential of street photography transforming something ordinary to something extraordinary.”
Balancing a demanding career in medicine with Dimitris's passion for photography is crucial. The photographer explained that it is “the luxurious state of being a medical doctor in Sweden and having personal time to develop as a photographer. This practically means 3-6 hours per week of shooting but also enough time every night to edit my photos, look at the work of other photographers, and do my photographic brainstorming.
I also have a 10-year-old kid that needs time and attention. So overall, even living in Sweden has been very challenging for me combining everything. I sleep fewer hours than I should to make everything work, but I am still happy with my life as it is. I also have tremendous support from my wife and work, which allows me to travel 2 times per year, 2 weeks each time, somewhere abroad."
Lastly, we were curious if there are any recent projects or subjects that Dimitris has been particularly excited about, and how they reflect on his ongoing evolution as an artist.
Dimitris shared: “I have been involved with different projects in recent years, and the most significant of them is a project I did in the cemeteries of Prague, which had a psychotherapeutic effect on me since I had a strong fear of death due to some life events. This project will be my first book, which I will try to self-publish in the coming months. This project was a significant deviation from my street photography and it helped me evolve as an artist and not get stuck in just one genre of artistic photography. There are more projects outside the street photography genre that are ongoing and I still have a passion for street photography. Let's see what will happen with these projects in the future.”
