Dear friends,

I’ll be delighted to see you at the opening of the exhibition of the remarkable portraits of Paxiotes by the French phographer Tina Merandon – Paxos Portraits – Summer of 2015 – at the old school in Loggos on Saturday 18 June from 6 to 11 pm.

These contemporary portraits will be juxtaposed to a rare collection of historic portraits in black and white from the 1960s by Paxos photographer Manolis Vlahopoulos.

Both supply a marvellous vision of the island people from now and then, from before and after the onslaught of tourism, from more innocent times and from last year’s summer of crisis and the fateful referendum.

With my best regards,

Chris Boïcos

During my artist’s residence with Chris Boïcos Fine Arts at the end of June and the beginning of July of 2015 I made photographic portraits of the inhabitants of Paxos.

Without pathos or dramatic posturing, but in a pictorial manner, I photographed individuals, all unique, but tied to a common destiny. It was the historic moment of the referendum of 5 July 2015 and Greeks were questioning themselves. Some were at work, some made time to pose for me, all were voting. It’s the “NO” that won the day. In this place, so imbued by mythology, I made photographs inspired by the rituals and poses of antiquity.

Tina Merandon