In the shadows cast from the strong Aegean light, silence becomes deeper and stronger when at the foot of a volcano-island. Greek mythology recounts how a sea God created the island in a rage, how a Titan lives in the volcano and how he cannot help himself but surrender to his destructive powers.
Memories aren’t just in the buildings, or the rocks they’re made up of. Memories are in this village’s ruins: the buildings destroyed by the earthquake give shape to what no longer exists; as if the village is determined to revert to it’s original self before man ever existed.
This constant Sense of Absence is echoed in the details of the forgotten lives: homes abandoned by families, a village abandoned by its community.
Today, the ones who stayed behind try to bring back to life what once was and will be again, but history’s imprint on the island is part of an eternal life identity; one where the personal significance of being is weighted in terms of yesterday, today and tomorrow..
Village of Emporio, Nisyros Island, Greece, 2009
