Aegean Light: The Spirit of Olympia

“Everything here speaks now as it did centuries ago, of illumination… Here the light penetrates directly to the soul, opens the door and windows of the heart, makes one naked, exposed, isolated in a metaphysical bliss, which makes everything so clear without being known.”—Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi

[Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from the book, Aegean Light, by Nick Melidonis, published by Fremantle Arts Centre Press. For more information visit the website: nickmelidonis.com/aegean-light.]

The first thing you notice about the Greek Archipelago is the purity of the light as it creates a contrast between the pristine white houses and the intense blue of the Aegean. Of the 3000 Greek Islands that crowd the northeastern part of the Mediterranean, probably the best known is the central group called the Cyclades.

The Cyclades are so named because they form a circle or ‘kiklo’ around the sacred Island of Delos, appropriately, the home to Apollo, the god of light. Each summer thousands of visitors make the journey to discover traditional rural lifestyles, vibrant town squares and soaring cliff vitas. The small dazzling white beaches are legendary and in late summer the Aegean is ruffled by the cooling Meltemi wind. Island hopping is a way of life for the sun-seeking hordes that often test the meager resources of the smaller islands.

My love affair with the Greek Islands started in the 70s. I was born in Alexandria, Egypt, to Greek parents and migrated to Australia at the age of 6. My father came from the island of Lesbos and he often talked about the way of life on the islands where he grew up in Mitilene.

In the Cyclades you can still find solitude away from the central ferry routes. An exploration of the mountain villages will reveal a lifestyle that has endured for many generations. Half-opened doorways lead into cozy flowered courtyards as cats dart through narrow, twisting alleyways. Above all, I am lured by the friendly smiles of people who offer you all they have, although many have very little.

I have seen the way of life in the many ports and villages succumb to the call of commercialism and the passing of the traditional way of life. Although saddened by this, my passion for these islands has not diminished.
Aegean Light is a celebration of the way of life such as my father knew. Fortunately, if we take the time to explore, we can find it still. The Greece which emerges from these images is one we should all come to know, a celebration of the light, the smile and of a people who truly represent the Spirit of Olympia and the ancient games.

Technical Notes
I try and keep my approach to photography as simple as possible to enable me to focus on the subject matter and the constantly changing quality of light. To enable me to do this, my equipment is basic and mostly 35mm so I can move quickly and effortlessly, whether I’m on a ferry or wandering around the narrow village streets of the Greek Islands.

I also find my enthusiasm and energy, when presented with interesting subject matter, leads me to be essentially intuitive and impatient when firing the shutter and so I mostly shoot without a lot of thought to the technical aspects of what I am doing. People, cats and ‘moments of amazing light’ come very quickly and are transient and so it is important for me to have my cameras ready to use quickly and also easily able to be attached to a tripod, which I use as often as I can to ensure razor-sharp quality.
A technique I have employed to great advantage when capturing images of the friendly Greek Islanders is to mount the camera on a tripod, take the first ‘formal’ frame of the subject smiling at the camera and then engage the subject in conversation, thus encouraging them to be more relaxed and animated. Meanwhile, I stop looking through the viewfinder while I continue to shoot with a cable release during the conversation.

The equipment I used mostly for the images included here is Canon EOS camera bodies with auxiliary battery packs, together with lenses Canon 16–35mm f/2.8 EF L, 100–400mm f/4.5–5.6 IS EF L, 28–135mm f/3.5–5.6 IS EF, EF 25 extension tube (used with the telephoto zoom for textural close-ups), 550 EX flash, Sekonic L-608 light meter and Manfrotto carbon-fiber tripod.
Panorama photographs are taken with a Noblex 135U and a Hasselblad X-PAN with 30mm, 45mm and 90mm lenses. Medium format photographs are shot with a Pentax 645N camera with a 45–90 mm lens. Obviously not all of this equipment is taken with me all of the time but for certain shoots during my many trips to the Cyclades, I concentrate on different types of images requiring various formats to balance my body of work prior to publishing.

The bulk of the gear is mostly carried using a Lowepro Mini-trekker. On even ground the use of a collapsible hand luggage trolley with large rubber wheels assisted me during the times when my back and shoulders started to bother me from a previous injury.

To capture the intense, saturated colors of the Greek Islands, my film of choice for most of the shoots is Fuji Velvia rated at ISO 40. Other films used included Fuji Provia and Sensia.

Author’s Updated Notes
Since writing this article a few years ago, I have gone over to the “dark side” and now shoot digitally. I still shoot with Canon and, interestingly enough, I still use most of the L Series lenses I had with my film cameras. I have the 24–105mm L Lens and the 16–35mm L Series II as updates, and currently use a Canon 1Ds Mark III and a 5D Mark II. My panoramas are now done with stitching software using PTGui and Photoshop to process the stitches and I also use HDR (high dynamic range) photos processed in Photoshop with the tone mapping carried out in Photomatix. Although I now spend a third of my year overseas on shoots, Greece is still one of my passions and my Greek Island Odyssey tour I run for the University of Western Australia celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. The 2010 tour is planned for May 2010 (https://nickmelidonis.com/files/UWAgreekFlyer-2010.pdf). I have taken many new photos of Greece since releasing Aegean Light, which will be the subject of another book. Wildlife Photographer Denis Glennon and I have launched Iconic Images International and have commenced a series of exciting projects to record and celebrate the ecological jewels of Australia (iconicimagesinternational.com).

Nick Melidonis has traveled extensively in pursuit of emotive images from some of the world’s most scenic locations. He has won numerous awards including the Australian Professional Landscape Photographer of the Year in 2000, 2001 and again in 2008. In 2001, Nick achieved a Master of Photography from the AIPP and a Double Masters in 2004. Nick writes regularly for many photography and lifestyle magazines and delivers seminars and lectures to the imaging industry. Visit Nick’s website: www.nickmelidonis.com.