The grass is greener on the other side

2020 – 2021

First days of the new virus outbreak in Athens. Government guidelines become strict rules. I photograph whatever I cook, the walls around me. I miss my daily activities. I wear a swimming suit and cap, and I stand before my lens. Bizarre. Self-portraits always made me uncomfortable. I go out in the garden. Between an almond blossom and an olive tree, in front of the fence, some things remain stagnant and others grow. Grass is one of them.

A daily dialogue is sparked with my camera which transpires on social media. More than ever I feel the need to tell a story, to communicate thoughts and feelings through images that are current, allegorical, sarcastic. I watch as the reactions unfold. At the same time I pressingly think of tomorrow’s picture. This process eases the monotony of the quarantine. Everything appears static. Only the grass keeps growing.

I let the imagination enter into my everyday life while at the same time photography functioned as a means of communication with my online friends. Everyday performance and photography became tools to capture a world that is not real. Because that’s what I wanted to believe, that what’s happening is beyond reality.

Literally, “the grass is greener on the other side (of the fence)” is a proverb. It’s commonly used to say that things other people possess or their situation, always look better than your own, even when they are not really so. In a period of a pandemic, where almost everyone on Earth faces the same threat equally, any form of vanity seems to fade.

‘You see, this is the world that looks so dangerous. It’s a toy, only deserved to be joked about!’ Sigmund Freud.

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