Light is everything in photography. But this is not what I most remember about these remote aquatic ecosystems; it is silence. A deep silence unknown in urban areas, a secret garden that inspires me to create peaceful images with a “zen” quality. I try to enhance this feeling by removing everything unnecessary from the frame; minimalism is for me, not only an art movement but mainly a way of life. I am constantly looking for simple, clear compositions that will allow me to create minimalist images, characterized by and evoke feelings of order, silence, and a peaceful, yet often sorrowful and lonesome atmosphere. The point of my art has never been to represent reality, but to reduce its complexity and clarify it. To do this, I utilize a lot of negative space to leave the eye no choice but to experience the main theme along with all the unused space — and this can often create a meditative experience.
I am inspired by an idealized nature, which suits my melancholic and introverted character; a nature without any distracting elements, serene, and beautiful, born from my love of silence and solitude. And while I photograph ordinary subjects, it is often things that we don’t notice as we go about our busy lives. I hope that my images, by attracting people’s attention, can push them to really look at the inconspicuous and discover beauty.
For me photography is not only the production of images, as beautiful as they can be; it is also about being alone out there on a coast, in the silence of a misty morning or a quite sunset, listening to the whispers of the waves or the wind gently blowing through the leaves of a willow tree. In my “Whispers of Silence” I try to create images that whispers silence, serenity, peace, and calmness; to create images as silent as they can be.
“And the vision that was planted in my brain … Still remains … Within the sound of silence” Simon & Garfunkel, The Sound of Silence.
Landscape in the Mist
Quiet Waters
Last Guardian
Reeds
First Rays of the New Rising Sun
Twilight at Mesolongi Lagoon
Tranquillity
Out of Time
The Rain Song
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Remnant
Serenity
Tranquillity
Echoes
Axios Delta 034
Still Standing
Poem for Loneliness
About George Digalakis
George Digalakis is an award-winning, fine art photographer, based in Athens, Greece, with a passion for black and white, minimalistic images that convey the beauty of nature.
Although I’ve been an art lover and a fanatical museum-goer for as long as I can remember, I have never thought of myself as an artist. I used to love the image-making process and the darkroom environment in the film era, but I viewed it only as a hobby. This, however, changed in 2010, when after attending an online photography course, I realized that this medium would offer me a getaway from reality, and enable me to express my inner world. Art, and photography in particular, proved to be a constant inspiration and a life-changing experience.
Through my art, I aim to reveal the beauty of the landscape, whilst creating images that people can relate to and which can inspire a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere, even in compact living spaces. In an attempt to satisfy my need for harmony, order, and aesthetic sense through symmetry around the horizontal and vertical axes, I strive to achieve the ultimate square format. I am inspired by nature as seen through my eyes: serene, beautiful, and ordered. My images inhabit a world of Zen to be experienced through sight, but also through the eyes of the soul, stimulating the imagination.
My intention is to create surreal, beautiful, and unearthly landscapes, with the power to transport one to exotic, remote and never-before visited places, touched by a melancholic atmosphere, but without ever being melodramatic.
You can find George Digalakis on the Web:
Copyrights:
All the pictures in this post are copyrighted to George Digalakis. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.
