“I woke up one morning and found a small camera next to my pillow, a gift from my uncle who was a photographer. I immediately went out and took photos of the neighbourhood. I remembered that film is light-sensitive, so I entered a closet and unfolded it, thinking that this way I will get to see the pictures. But I wasn’t able to see in the dark so I opened the closet's door a little, but still I couldn’t make them out. Completely disappointed, I headed to the neighbourhood photographer, in Heraklion of Crete. I showed him the unfolded film but instead of photos he 'treated' me to a rude gesture. He teased me relentlessly for years, even more so when I became a known photographer”.

Passion for beautiful pictures

Photographer Andrew Smaragdis still sees the world through the eyes of a child, the same way that he did when he was eight years old. It doesn't matter where he is taking photos; whether it's in  the studio, on a mountain or near a lake. Once, during an aerial photo shoot, he almost fell out of the helicopter. The pilot was stunned. He must have been thinking what kind of photographer this was and what kind of thrills he was chasing. On a different occasion, he was sitting on a boat at Kerkini Lake and he was paddling gently so that he didn't scare the birds. They, however, flew away, except for just one heron who continued to sit restlessly on a small branch.

“We looked at each other for a couple of minutes until it calmed down and started shaking his comb just like models do when posing. I took a lot of photos of it and eventually I lowered the camera. It then spread its wings and became airborne, but before going away it circled over my boat. Some may think that all this was nothing more than my imagination, but I can’t help thinking that I actually communicated with this bird, that it trusted me. Since then, every morning I wake up, I expect that something similar may happen to me and I run to find it, always with my camera in tow”.

The glam of uniqueness

Andrew Smaragdis’s infatuation with pictures is not a temporary; it is a constant love for the world. He is a true artist who can notice the glam of the unique and unprecedented in meaningless, for many, objects. He is a man who can easily transfer his life orientation from the “useful” to the “beautiful” things.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

MORE PHOTOS

At the Schisto bazaar in Skaramagkas.

The students of his school, Blow Up, during a class.

Photo from one of his albums

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