Abandoned houses, memories, people, dreams. Like the desert thirsty for rain, hoping for a little air, for a flower, for a friendly touch and a smile
Without words I’ll start a small photographic presentation of every last month, as the wind through the moments and made them history – no forgotten history –
These are the selection from the snapshots I did, according mostly from accidental events, professional shots and my walks around the streets
I decided to do this every month as a small appreciation for the people and the moments were smiled to me !!
MAY 2017 in Cyprus.
The abandoned Asylum of incurability “New martyr Georgios” inside the city of Ioannina in Greece.
If I understood well the hospital closed on 2009 and the people lived there went to another place out of the city, the old Asylum remain closed all these years
Now the only visitors who enter illegally, jumping a small fence, are mostly photographers, thieves and drug addicts, looking to find each lost paradise
This story started from my curiosity to see this unique place from some pictures I saw and from the stories I was heard about the old Asylum from friends living and studying in Ioannina
Then it evolved into exercise of courage for myself and secondary a photography test, because I strongly believe that in every place were people had suffer the specific place still have their energy, their cry, their mood.
So in this place, years before souls with problems lived there.
All the time even if I was in the middle of the day I had strange feelings…
..the things around me, seems like someone left them for a while
and the owners from moment to moment they will return and they will ask me why I disturb them, why I am there, and from whom I took the permission for this visit
Even now when I am writing this, I have this disturbing feeling that someone was with me all the time and for this reason again and again I am looking carefully to find him in the reflections, hiding in the shadows, behind the windows, in the dark rooms in the pictures
I want to share the mood and the feeling of the moment, this was the reason why I edited the pictures in B/W even if I am fan of the colour pictures.
Also, I have to apologize because I found nothing to say about the asylum, nobody knows and nobody talks and in researching I did in web I found again nothing
I hope the municipality of Ioannina to realise the value of this abandoned hospital, they have to protect it because it is pity this unique place to don’t be a center of culture and spirit
In the village of Prodromos at Troodos mountain there is the famous abandoned hotel of Verengaria!
The Verengaria hotel was built at the early 20th century and soon became famous around the middle east!
It was a truly a unique hotel with top of the class facilities and service which along with its architecture and location boosted its fame.
The hotel had a night club, huge dinning rooms, playgrounds, casino, bars and other extras which added to its success as it was a pioneer for that time.
Its famous guests like Pharouk, the King of Egypt and Ezer Vaisman president of Israel along with the elite of the business and show world of the time, gave the hotel the nickname “Hotel of Kings”!
The name Verengaria on the other hand was the name of the queen of Navarre (Berengaria), and wife of Richard the Lionheart, King of England.
They got married in Cyprus on May 12, 1191.
Closed early of 80’s and the 88 rooms hotels became a legend, nowadays the visitors are coming to identify by themselves this old impoverished and ruined aristocrat with the many legends and ghosts
One evening before two weeks, I found myself walking in Pallouriotissa neighborhood,
I had a strange mood and a great need just to walk and make photos without a concept, just photos to clear my mind which has stuck
Always I loved this kind of neighborhoods the people are curious and knows the meaning of hospitality,
I found two teenagers playing there, in an abandoned square.
I was very suprised when I realized their game
One of them (Dani Amourri) filming his partner with an handmade tool for his mobile.
I asked from my new friend to send me what he got from his shootings with his mobile phone
so after when I had time I made this Video
The video I was made for them, for their inspiration,
(sorry if the result is not professionally under the international standards :-)
Maybe this will be a good inspiration for you, because for me it was
Till I arrived to my home, I continued the “shootings”
The night came and unfortunately I didn’t have more time
I had to stop
Next time I’ll stay longer, a new chapter opened for me
A very good chapter
39 years after the Turkish invasion, an island with two separated communities, a thousand of stories,
so many of which truly tragic,
so many ruins to remind you that you should not forget.
In almost every corner you can see the past not as a protected historic landmark space but with a great difficulty through much fear, just like in the forbidden dreams, like some nightmarish memories not letting you unsweat, even when burned by the scorching sun you still remain totally feraful sweaty even though the danger has passed, has it?
Sometimes Ι am wondering if I walk through history or I just wander around my very own imagination??
A little further pass me, horns, the noise of the modern city, around me, modern clothes, modern music, but somehow in an invisible matter the elements prevail,
like ghosts
(On progress………..)
One of my childish game so many years before, was to imagine when I looked a abandoned place with damaged houses, a wasteland, the people used to live there, their voices, their lives,
Dreams full of emotionally questions without truly answers
Yesterday today tomorrow a human path for surviving
