Interview

Feb 18

Maria Tsormpatzoglou

Maria Tsormpatzoglou lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

She started off her photography journey in 2019, and since then has participated in exhibitions from Berlin, to London, Athens, Venice, Budapest, Rome, and Madrid, including virtual exhibitions from galleries in New York City.

Maria’s photography invites you to observe her work with your instincts and heart, or even an inner knowledge you may not know you even possessed!

What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?

“I don't have an educational background in either arts or photography, besides a few courses I virtually attended at MoMA. It's just my need for expression that led me to dancing, singing, and lately photography. When it comes to photography in particular, I divide my creations in two sections, portraits and abstracts. Both attempt to display different aspects of reality and what one wouldn't typically see in this world.

Whenever I take a portrait of someone, I treat the session as if it was a psychoanalytical one, aiming to capture the most unseen traits of the person I have in front of my lens. That couldn't be achieved without first building trust, and as a result each such session is very unique and undoubtedly says a lot about both the photographee and the photographer. In other words, it is merely an intimate ‘discussion’ about that person and their hidden sides.

Similarly, when it comes to my abstract work, which seems not that abstract to me actually, I am mainly constituting allegories of emotions. Colors, shapes, layers have their own meaning and aim to reveal what the naked eye can't see. That consequently poses questions on what each spectator comprehends via their vision, and attempts to bring people closer by 1, making them recognize their own emotions (how does this make me feel?), and 2, comprehending that differences exist (because what I see isn't necessarily what someone else sees). This way I hope to trigger the need for discussion on different perspectives.

Having said that, the need for expression, as I mentioned before, along with the insatiable urge to exist in multiple worlds (those of personalities, of my fantasy, of other people, and of the several other veiled worlds) is what made me start my journey in the art world.”

What inspires you most?

“Mysticism, primordial energies, dark and/or passionate feelings, personal obsessions, late night talks, the night itself, nature's breadth, the place I am living at, good tunes, life's sarcasm, and old souls with young hearts - whatever extraordinarily beautiful or rare encounter I have in life. I am deeply thankful for all those things, as they revoke boredom from living and subsequently help me keep moving forward.”

What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?

“I touched upon this previously. It's all the unseen - from feelings to realities to unsaid words. It's also about evoking the spectator's curiosity to understand what the picture means, and this way enabling the acceptance of differences - both within us and those of others. Lastly, the existence of other worlds (with and without quotation marks) and the leeway to claim individuality by accepting uniqueness.”

How would you describe your work?

“Personal. I constantly question things and that's why I often discover parts of myself, which I try to make sense of. So I use photography as the main tool in order to do so. As the past is somehow always present, it creates greater disarray in my head in regard to discovering ultimately true answers about the questions I pose.”

“I am very much interested in discovering the Truth in this chaotic, multilayered life. So, due to this intrinsic curiosity and the never-ending pursuit of growth and change, chaos has become extraordinarily dear to me. I've learned to trust it. This helped me to become very intimate with myself and, as a result, produce very personal work.”

What artists influence you most?

“Although I am trying not to be influenced by other artists in order to produce work that is authentically me (if this is ever possible), there are artists whose work touched the innermost parts of myself and hence profoundly influenced me. These are Marina Abramovic, Antoine D'Agata, Aubrey Beardsley, and Max Ernst.

Their presence and work is arousing because the character supports the work, and vice versa in an exponential manner. I get the feeling that they are in very close contact with their core and elemental existence, each one expressed in their own ways and means, which indicates that their whole existence is taken over by art for the sake of existence and not for the sake of production. And I admire that.”

What is your creative process like?

“I try to live my life by mainly acting upon instincts that surface each moment, and this naturally influences my creative process as well. I just need to feel or think of something I've never felt or thought of before in order for my curiosity to be initiated. Then I just go after it. It is a very fluid dance between the external and the internal. Everything that I capture out there reflects what I see inside me; what I seek to get a glimpse of; what I long to touch. So, it is just an inner need to go out there and take pictures, and in the same context this means that I can also spend a month or two without touching my camera at all, when I don't feel inspired to do so.”

What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?

“I don't see only one role. Art is multifold just as life is. So, depending on the artist's intention and the message, each piece of art is meant to transmit and convey at a particular point in space-time, the role of the artist changes. Sometimes it can be to pose questions, other times to provoke, or maybe to showcase ways of being. That is a process of becoming, so it is ever-evolving.

I am very pleased to see more and more people being interested in art, either by creating it, or attending events, or having any other sort of involvement. Berlin is a great city to see all of this happening.

What is also interesting and highlights artists' and art's role in the society, is the significance of NFTs in the crypto market, which to me demonstrates that art has a very substantial role in today's life as well as the need for it to be more independent and even more long-lasting.”