There were once two friends!

They met in New York City in the mid-1980s. The era of sex, drugs and ... post-expressionist punk rock!

One was studying economics & cinematography, and the other was working on Wall Street.

They met again many years later, one evening at the opening of an exhibition of works by Mark Hadjipateras.

Takis, the producer and cinematographer had rediscovered the magic of photography on recent solitary walks by the sea.

Theodore, the Wall Street Golden Boy had ‘quit the game’ and was working as a photographer. He had obviously grown tired of his colleagues at the temple of wealth.

I present to you the two friends and photographers of this show: Takis Veremis and Theodore Xenos.

Two different sensitive takes in a single exhibition that is slightly subversive, beyond the strict ‘clichés’ of a gallery.  And why not!

According to Susan Sontag, “the photographer is an armed version of the solitary walker reconnoitering, stalking, cruising the urban inferno, the voyeuristic stroller who discovers the city as a landscape of voluptuous extremes. Adept of the joys of watching, connoisseur of empathy, the flâneur finds the world picturesque.”

Looking at their photographs, one sees two different approaches.

Theodore Xenos photographs urban homes or run-down and abandoned spaces, defunct, absent of human presence.  He engages with the space, sometimes in an austere, Doric form, and in other instances in an exaggerated ‘gothic’ architecture, always using colour. 

In contrast, Takis Veremis captures a strong human presence and elements of nature. Black-and-white photographs, approaches in the present tense, with natural lighting. The light playing on the sea or on the wet wind shield creates altered perceptions, imparting added content to the image.

The exhibition includes a video of their photographs, edited by Takis Veremis, with music and voice-off excerpts from Dante Alighieri and T. S. Eliott.  Thus transposing the silent images into a new audiovisual dimension.