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Cyprus on Film, Larnaca (2026)

16/11/2024

Some of you have asked to see more portraits on my feed and I thought I’d share what started it, in a way. This series of photos might be what pushed me to explore portraits a bit more. This time last yeah a friend came to visit. I always thought Oleksandra might be the perfect model for a practice photoshoot. On a windy November day we went to Avdimou Bay and I took a few shots with what might be the most fitting camera for the occasion. Oleksandra is from Odesa and is very proud of her Ukrainian heritage; I thought I’d bring out my Kiev 60 paired with the Volna 3 80mm f2.8: both made in what is now Ukraine. As for film, I used my beloved FP4+ it’s unmatched in its sweet rendering of skitones.

The result was a dreamy yet crisp series of that made me want to push a bit more in this direction and see what else can be done. So I have Oleksandra to thank for giving me this opportunity to explore new avenues creatively.

📷 Kiev 60 + Volna 80mm f2.8 + 🟡
🎞 FP4+
🧪 XTOL 1:1
📍 Avdimou Bay

16/10/2024

I’m overwhelmed with the reactions to the poll and then the post with Natali’s portraits. So I’d like to thank you first for all the kind words and encouragements. I’m still working on improving the technique and playing a bit with natural light. I’m also trying to add flash into the equation, but that will come a bit later.

I’ll soon post some of the portraits I really like to take, of people usually not photographed. I’m also looking for volunteers who are patient enough to go through some of the experiments with me. Write me a message if you’re up for it!

📷 Pentax Spotmatic F + Super Takumar 85mm f1.8
🎞 PanF 50
🧪 XT-3 1:1
📍 Larnaca

14/10/2024

Some time ago I decided I need to change my way of taking pictures, and for that I would need to adapt by changing the equipment I use. I decided to go with an all mechanical setup, with many interesting lens choices. The M42 lineup I already knew as I had a few of them. So I bid on a Pentax Spotmatic F and got it for £30. After a bit of care I brought it back to life and decided to call her 奇跡 Kiseki, the Japanese word for “Miracle”. Paired with some of the Super Takumar lenses it’s become my favourite 35mm system.

I went to see fellow photographer and had brought Kiseki with me, along with an 85mm f1,8 that I really wanted to try. I loaded a roll of quite tired and expired Ilford PanF 50 and shot the whole roll in 15 minutes tops, while we were having coffee, talking and laughing.

After a lot of pressure, she made me promise I’d post them here. Any favourites? I’ll post more in the days to come.

📷 Pentax Spotmatic F + Super Takumar 85mm f1.8
🎞 PanF 50
🧪 XT-3 1:1
📍 Larnaca

23/07/2024

Is it possible to find beauty in the mundane, or even in what isn’t inherently beautiful? I faced this question lately as I was walking around my neighbourhood. Since a dog appeared in my life, I’m back to having daily walks in the neighbourhood after a two year hiatus. A lot has changed since, neighbours have grown older, some passed away, traditional houses have been demolished and replaced with bland fungible overpriced apartment blocks. Some of the older apartment blocks have deteriorated further, creating some “interesting textures”. I’m a sucker urban and architecture photography, so this gave me an opportunity to look for beauty where there isn’t any. I actually had a discussion with my friend .photography who a few years back tried to convince me that our local “modern” architecture (not the modernist masterpieces) has something worth exploring. I think I’ve started understanding what he means.

I did this experiment while trying a new (for me) film stock, Adox’s CHS 100II. I found it to be grainier and grittier looking than my usual FP4+ and maybe with a touch more infrared sensitivity. Though it wasn’t a fair test as I developed it in the legendary FX39 instead of XTOL/XT-3. I liked the result with portraits, but I’ll post those separately sometime in the future.

📷 Praktica MTL5B & Helios 44 58mm f2
🎞 CHS 100ii
🧪 FX 39ii 1:9
📍 Limassol

01/07/2024

What’s in a picture?

I took this picture in the summer of 2022 while on a boat party. Little did I know that by immortalising this moment I would also capture people who would later become close friends and some of them would go on to become flatmates. I only realised that a year later when I was scanning this picture to submit it to the Limassol Photography Festival’s curation committee. It went on to be printed in a large format and was exhibited on my hometown’s main seaside promenade for a couple of weeks. It’s one of my main achievements so far in my humble photographic journey. I’m glad I got to share this moment with the friends who are in the picture, who were just strangers when the photo was taken. How things can change in a year…

Something I pointed out during the presentation of my work is that this picture was taken using one of my most modest setups: a Praktica MTL5B “Kleo” and a Helios 44 which I bought together for under 50€. This combination is still one of my favourite setups, and I absolutely love using it while out and about. I only recently thought of upgrading this combo to something a bit more reliable for heavy and extensive use, so as not to overly stress poor old Kleo, who is starting to show signs of aging. As for the Helios: boy this Soviet lens is a thing of beauty! No matter how much some people revile it, I absolutely love its amazing rendering…

A shoutout to all the friends and salsa artists in the frame: karaiskou

And last but not least to the who picked this picture and exhibited it in October 2023.

📷 Praktica MTL5B & Helios 44 58mm f2
🎞 FP4+
🧪 XTOL 1:1
📍

26/06/2024

“Errare humanum est”

To err is human - a quote frequently attributed to Seneca. Isn’t it funny how, etymologically at least, to make a mistake and to stray or to roam share common roots: “error” in Latin. Yet we “err on the side of caution”… to avoid mistakes. Now that’s a peculiar twist…

How do I tie this to this picture? I took this particular frame while on a photo walk in the old town. Everyone was busy talking techniques as I strayed away from the group. We miss so much when we don’t look up. That’s a mistake I make sometimes. This composition caught my attention and I fired away and got this shot. I find it a lucky shot, almost a mistake, a happy mistake that is. My eye saw something I liked, yet my finger captured the final shot. I felt cheated in a way. Later when I developed the film I realised fully the extent of my mistake. Not only was the shot better than I expected, as I said, down to sheer luck, I also realised the roll had tiny specks everywhere, a fault in the emulsion or backing paper. Another mistake. Never trust cheap film again. Yet it’s what gives this shot its meaning: its imperfection. Born of an error and immortalised on a questionable medium. Though I’d usually have a tendency to discard such errors, I’ve decided to keep this one. Let it be one of those mistakes I like making.

📷 Yashica Mat 124
🎞 .cz Fomapan 200
🧪 XT-3 1:1
📍 Saripolou Square, Limassol

#κύπρος

15/11/2023

What does photography mean to you? I asked this question in a story the other day just to gauge how you feel about this art which has now been so watered down that’s it’s lost some of its essence.

My relationship with photography started at a young age and our relationship grew with us. Lately it has become one of the ways I meditate, slow down, observe, feel and then express myself through the image I’ve taken. Analogue photography is even more appropriate for this exercise as it forces you to reflect and imagine before you press the shutter release, then to wait before assessing the result.

Photography is my medicine when I’m down, when I need a pickup, a way to occupy my wandering mind, to unstick it from the dark corners into which my thoughts seem to want to settle and into a brighter more illuminated creative avenues. One such occasion was a his past Sunday when I took Lyuba the Liubitel 166 on a walk around my neighbourhood with a roll of “unusable” film, to do something I never do and completely out of my comfort zone: multiple exposures. From the poll this image came out a clear winner and it’s also my favourite from that roll of film. I pass this house almost every day. I love this door and the table and chairs on the front porch. I also love the garden and the citrus trees. I wanted to recreate the emotions I get when thinking of that place and combined the trees with the door and porch, as a tribute to a thought, to how I imagine this house in the nice afternoon light, which hits I just perfectly.

As I always have music in my head, enjoy it with this amazing song by one of my favourite local bands ‘s Inda.

📷 Lomo Liubitel 166 Universal
🎞 .cz Fomapan 200
🧪 XT3 1:1
📍 Limassol

14/06/2023

Part of the fun in photography is to experiment with taking a subject from different angles. Whereas the West side of the pier gave me the opportunity to play around with the foreground and the massive hole that nature created under the pier, the East side has a completely different feel. We can see the collapsed concrete slab as well as some of what Mother Nature has replaced the man made structures with. From this distance the derelict state of the pier itself isn’t clear, whereas the foreground clearly shows what neglect led to. We are reaching the final stage of this mini series, but the whole area around Lefke/Lefka and Morphou/Omorfo definitely deserves more attention. I’m hoping to revisit soon and maybe I’ll take some of you with me for a change.

📷 4x5 mkIV + Nikkor SW 90mm f4,5 + Big Stopper

🎞 .cz Fomapan 200

🧪 Rodinal 1:100 semi stand

📍 Karavostasi/Gemikonağı

#κύπρος

06/06/2023

No matter what angle you look from, that pier is just breathtaking. Its state of decay probably makes it even more impressive, despite not knowing how long it will remain standing given how it hasn’t been maintained since the mid seventies.

This shot was a bit of an exercise for me. I tried to capture maximum depth of field by using the view camera’s front standard’s tilt (for those of you who want to know more just drop me a DM and I’ll explain) this allowed me to capture most of the scene though I may have slightly missed some detail in the foreground. Live and learn!

📷 4x5 mkIV + Nikkor SW 90mm f4,5 + Big Stopper

🎞 .cz Fomapan 200

🧪 Rodinal 1:100 semi stand

📍 Karavostasi/Gemikonağı

#κύπρος

01/06/2023

The pier at Karavostasi/Gemikonağı. The final point for the copper ore on the island before heading abroad. When I first went into the now abandoned copper ore processing facility and reached the pier I felt transported to both a different time and place. The actual location is breathtaking, filled with derelict industrial infrastructure, an overpowering smell of metal, heavy pollution and this incredibly long jetty that is just thrust into the horizon. In the relative calm I could imagine the deafening sounds of the conveyor belts that took the ore to the ships tied at the end of the pier. The whole experience was surreal.

This shot was a no brainer: a perfect candidate for using the Intrepid’s view camera movements to rectify perspective; a perfect place to use a (very) long exposure and the Lee Big Stopper ND filter. This particular shot was taken with my good friend .vivien who was patient enough and kept me company for the half hour during which the shutter was open.

Why did I chose this photo? Because I felt it shows my current mood. It’s the first of the month and I’ve decided to tackle some hurdles that life threw in my path, to look forward to brighter times ahead. I felt this shot, out of all the ones I’ve been keeping from last year, is the one that best represents my state of mind and how I’m counting on capturing my best work yet and I’ll be sharing it with you.

📷 4x5 mkIV + Nikkor SW 90mm f4,5 + Big Stopper

🎞 .cz Fomapan 200

🧪 Rodinal 1:100 semi stand

📍 Karavostasi/Gemikonağı

#κύπρος

10/05/2023

Continuing with our mini series we now go to the sleepy town of Karavostasi/Gemikonağı. The first time I visited, I was sort of taken aback by a sad feeling, seeing how the area is now a shadow of what it once was. The seaside town who’s name in both Greek and Turkish translates to “boat haven” in English was once the main export facility for Cyprus’s copper industry, mainly from the large mine at Skouriotissa. What you see here is what remains of the small pier, a tugboat and slightly out of frame is what apparently used to be the Cyprus Mining Corporation’s staff bar/café. The train from the previous post is close by too. All of the above are in a complete state if disrepair and even dangerous to visit up close. It’s a matter of time before both the boat and pier wither away and are swallowed up by the relentless waves of the Mediterranean.

📷 4x5 mkIV + Nikkor SW 90mm f4,5

🎞 .cz Fomapan 200

🧪 Rodinal 1:100 semi stand

📍 Karavostasi/Gemikonağı

#κύπρος

Cyprus on Film

16/11/2024

16/10/2024

14/10/2024

23/07/2024

01/07/2024

26/06/2024

15/11/2023

14/06/2023

06/06/2023

01/06/2023

10/05/2023

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