MARIA KARKANAKI
It is the story of a woman who lives alone for more than sixty years on the eastern side of Crete, in a place marked by the ancient habitation, the colony of palm trees, and the toil of its people. Aged Helen comes every day to her window to meet and greet her neighbors while I keep returning to her home to collect quotes from past lives.
Visiting repeatedly, I got distracted by the rhythms of everyday life, in the white walls of her house. I began to rediscover memories, textures, colors, smells and explore the concept of home at the same time familiar yet so strange. A house almost unchanged for years, which in its enclosed shape unfolds a microcosm of displacements, separations and returns.
Memory, parenthood, absence, but also self-sufficiency and women strength are detected in this photographic work. Space and objects talk about the past and reflect images that envelop us, gently and other times with ferocity. Small, subtle details, a crack in the plaster or sheet lying in the yard, expanding, and acquire a decisive importance. Aren’t we all finally held captive by the houses that once hosted us?
All images © Maria Karkanaki
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