Pygmalion Karatzas
Architectural, Fine Art & Commercial Photography

Interview for Tutti Fotografi Magazine.

March 2020.

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Tutti Fotografi: When, where and why did your passion for photography begin? What kind of equipment did you use at first? How have these years of fervent technological evolution passed through your work?

Pygmalion Karatzas: During my adolescence years I developed a fascination for cinema and in combination with my studies in architecture, visual arts became a field I admired and enjoyed studying. Drawing, painting, photography, graphics, design, cinematography, were interesting to me from both sides of viewer and creator. After dipping my toes in landscape, street and travel photography during my university years in Hungary and Scotland (1991-96) using analogue cameras, I mainly used photography to document my architectural designs back in Greece (1999 - 2012). Around that time a confluence of events brought back to the forefront my interest in photography: learning post-processing in photoshop for architectural renderings, the advancement of DSLRs and high dynamic range in photography, the booming of web photo sharing platforms, and the construction decline during the European financial crisis. With a Nikon D90, a Nikkor 18-105mm lens, a tripod and some Neutral Density filters, I started to experiment with long exposure photography. The minimalist landscapes and cityscapes I admired in photographers like David Burdeny and Michael Kenna were some of my inspirations and aspiration. At the same time, through the photographic lens I started to re-evaluate my architectural photography and to study professional architectural photographers as the photo editor for the Danish Architecture Center and their e-zine arcspace.com. Combining these two creative fields - architecture and photography - became my main focus. Traveling around Greece, in some European countries and in Qatar, I got to start building a portfolio of fine art and editorial architectural photography, receiving distinctions at international photography competitions and participating in exhibitions. With this body of work produced over a period of three years (2012 - 2014), I received the Fulbright Artist Scholarship and traveled around the U.S. in twelve cities to explore further a multi-perspectival approach to architectural photography. My main gear had switched to Nikon D800, the Nikkor 14-24mm lens, the Formatt-Hitech Firecrest IRND filters, and additional post-processing workflows in Lightroom. So, to answer the last part of your question, the technological evolution has indeed been happening fast, but it hasn’t changed that much for me. When I found what gear I wanted and needed to use for the type of photography I am doing, I remained with it long enough to accustom myself to the point the technical aspects don’t get in the way of the creative aspects. There are always additional gear and tools we can add but in service of the project and vision of the work.            
 

Tutti Fotografi: What do you want to express, transmit or represent today through your images and your style?

Pygmalion Karatzas: I see myself wearing two hats: When working on commissioned assignments for architects and businesses, capturing and representing their buildings and spaces as best as I can is the main objective. On the one end of the spectrum is the personal expression and impression, being true to oneself and to the medium; and on the other end of the spectrum is being true to the project and client, the interpersonal and transpersonal expression. I feel the best work is done when both sides of this spectrum merge and co-create. As an overall mentality, my approach is influenced by my desire and pleasure I had as a student and practicing architect to study buildings and cities I didn’t have the opportunity to visit in person, as well as my love for architecture and urban design. The last years being behind the lens, the love for photography was added, which is summed up in the desire and continuous effort to produce the best possible imagery that describe, highlight and fully cover every project, creating a portfolio and archive that is useful and valuable to the multiple groups of people involved in its realisation and the broader public.
When working on personal projects, I think a transmission that comes across is that of exploring photographically the built and natural environment, finding memorable connections to it, the splendour and joy of being out there working with elements within and beyond our control. In architecture, in photography, and in art we find the intention to put order into chaos. Life, on the other hand, is more messy; hence I believe there is an inherent attraction to more tranquil visuals and moments. In the same way we ideally desire from the public their attention while viewing our work, we as creators also try to present it clear from distractions. The more ad hoc our environment is, the more we have the need to add some order, even if it is a momentary one visible through a particular frame like a spell on visual cacophony.
 

Tutti Fotografi: Where do you usually get your inspiration from? How do you organize your photographic projects? Are there any curious or funny stories to share that happened while you were shooting?

Pygmalion Karatzas: As the quote from Ansel Adams goes “you don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” Nowadays inspiration is available to us by the minute at our fingertips, which has its advantages, but I do prefer the “old-school” notion that in an organic and intangible way we bring all the knowledge, references, influences, biases, predispositions, preferences, conditioning, limitations, backgrounds, etc. to our every click. Aside this general preface, I get my inspiration from studying the work of other photographers. It is also important to allow for the project/subject itself to inspire you. The more time we spend with our subjects, the more they speak to us.
My photographic work generally speaking is organised either by project or thematically by subject. Some projects though are the product of a single day’s photo shoot, while other projects have been a lot more complicated and extensive in duration and body of work produced, so for those cases additional organisational rationals are applied. For example, images presented in this feature are part of a larger project: ‘Integral Lens - multi perspectival approaches to the study and representation of the built environment’. A visual journey of contemporary architecture and cityscapes from United States taken during a 5-month visit, awarded by the Fulbright Foundation Greece in collaboration with the College of Architecture and Design of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Five books have been compiled with 10 series and more than 30 monographs on specific buildings.


Tutti Fotografi: Composition and balancing are two of the most evident elements that emerge from your work. At the same time the blacks seem to be an important part of your aesthetic. Did these elements evolve since you started or have they always been present in your images?

Pygmalion Karatzas: It’s true these elements are evident in my frames. In my architectural studies and practice composition had been an important design elements so inevitably it was present when I started with photography; it doesn’t mean though it didn’t need evolving. Looking back at my photography before I started practicing it professionally I see many compositional flaws or weaknesses.
In a recent architectural photography course I taught along with prof. of architecture Mark DeKay, we took the compositional tools of Steve McCurry for street/travel photography and Ian Plant for landscape photography and we applied them to architectural photography (link: https://issuu.com/pygmalionkaratzas/docs/utk_gr19_course_material). Using these 18 composition tools as a starting point, there is a lot of room to evolve our images for new and experienced photographers alike.     


Tutti Fotografi: Does technical equipment influence the aesthetic result of images and projects? Can you please tell us what is today your standard equipment for professional commitments or for a personal job?

Pygmalion Karatzas: My standard equipment these days are Nikon D800, Nikkor 14-24mm and 24-70mm lenses, Manfrotto 055 tripod, Really Right Stuff ball head, Formatt-Hitech Firecrest IRND filter 3.0; and for post-processing Photoshop and Lightroom. With drone collaborators we use either the DJI Mavic 2 Pro or the Phantom 4. Being able to capture wider angles with the 14mm lens or to expose for 2-4 min. with the 10-stop ND filter are the more straightforward influences of such gear. Using Lightroom and Photoshop also affects technically the results giving a more natural high dynamic range, contrast and sharpness to the images. It remains a valid point that the gear doesn’t make the photographer, but at the same time in order to achieve very specific results certain equipment are needed.    
 

Tutti Fotografi: In your opinion, what is the most important element that could make a photograph look great? (Light? Composition? Technical perfection? … Development?)

Pygmalion Karatzas: I would say all the above, plus the subject matter itself and what the image transmits to us when we view it, the feelings and thoughts it evokes, the concept and vision of the creator, to name a few more. Experiencing an image has two components working together: on the one hand we have all these technical aspects as you mentioned (composition, light, development if it is in print), and yet on the other hand we also have the consciousness / interiority of the viewer, his attention, focus, interest, predispositions, etc. Photographer and Zen teacher John Daido Loori in his book ‘The Zen of creativity’ elaborates on these later aspects as much as he does on the former. Interested readers can read more about this in the article ‘Zen and Photography’ - https://www.pygmalionkaratzas.com/articlezen.
If one is interested in creating images, then of course going “behind the curtain” and learning how to do them is useful and necessary. But when one is viewing an image, all the how-to can become a distraction from fully connecting to it and experiencing it. In his section titled ‘Jeweled Mirror’ he talks about how creative feedback helps us find out the impression our work has on the audience and evaluate the extend that it relates to our initial intentions. It is emphasised here that as we enter a particular state of consciousness when creating art, the same is valid for the act of perceiving art works. He also discusses the issue of “barriers” in artistic expression and experience like originality, attachment, being overly influenced by our teachers or the photographers we have studied, and how these barriers can become our blind spots.    


Tutti Fotografi: Do you try to maintain through your projects and works a coherent aesthetic style? How can you do that? Which are the linking elements through different works?

Pygmalion Karatzas: One way to accomplish a coherent project is to use the same point of view while photographing diverse subjects. My series ‘Nortigo’ utilises the perspective of looking straight up towards the sky while photographing interior and exterior spaces. The linking element in this case is the one-point perspective. In the series ‘AQAL views’ the linking element was water in cityscapes. By using long exposure, the water surface is smoothened allowing for the cityscapes to be punctuated. Square 1x1 format or pano 2x1 format also assist in the formulation of the continuity. In the series ‘Boomeritis’, featured here,  landmark buildings are treated as portraits either in their context or in closeups setting them apart. In this case the protagonist is architecture itself, form and materiality becomes the linking element. In the book collection ‘Integral Lens’ I edited these series together and the organisational element was scale, going from part to whole to group to system.     


Tutti Fotografi: In a certain way the approach to shooting, developing and printing of Zone System is very similar to today’s Shooting-for-Data that is commonly used in Raw photography. How important is nowadays thinking of the aim of an image when planning a shot?

Pygmalion Karatzas: When I was photographing with film I was not printing my own negatives so I don’t have a first-hand experience with that process but as far as I understand it nowadays the way we work with the digital negative (raw file) is similar. In my own work and genre I tend to underexpose in order to be able to work with the highlights and shadows in Lightroom during post. Another thing to consider that affects the photo shoot is using a tripod in order to be able to shoot in low ISO values under any light condition, which also relates to the aim of the image - that of being able to process it with less noise.    

Tutti Fotografi: Is still the print the preferred destination for a B&W shot? What are the best printing practices that you’ve come across so far?

Pygmalion Karatzas: Having our images in our hands printed is for me too still the preferred end product of photography, be it in books, magazines, public exhibitions, private collections, decorating spaces, etc. With the volume of images produced and “consumed” nowadays and the taking over of the dissemination by the web, inevitably we end up printing less of our work and online viewing outlets are the new norm. I have been using various printing studios in my region (Aegion, Patras and Athens) for my fine art prints and blurb.com for my portfolios and monographs. I have been satisfied with the printing quality of Blurb and their user interface.  


Tutti Fotografi: Talking about your specific photographic genre, not only to B&W photography, what are the main limitations of new photographers who try their hand into your genre?

Pygmalion Karatzas: This past year I developed and conducted with prof. of architecture Mark DeKay and editor/coach Susanne Bennett from the University of Tennessee Knoxville an academic photography course on architectural and landscape photography. Some of the difficulties I noticed our students dealing with had to do with gear, with post-processing, with composition and framing, with allowing more time to fully explore a location or subject; and finding a comfortable balance between dealing with the technical aspects, envisioning their end product, and enjoying themselves in the process. Which is totally understandable when one is starting out. We structured the course to include classroom presentations, in situ workshops with the instructors, assignments to explore places photographically on their own, and guest talks / guided tours with local professionals in the related fields. The fast-paced rhythm of dealing with new information, people and places required for our exterior professional advancement was counterbalanced with the contemplative and reflective mindset needed for our interior personal and interpersonal development. If you do love your field and are eager to work hard on your advancement, the limitations became challenges used creatively. I am happy to say, all our students embraced these challenges and enjoyed themselves while doing it.    
 

Tutti Fotografi: Please give to our readers some tips for getting the best out of their B&W photos. If you’d like the most, instead of these tips, you could tell us 5 good reasons to choose B&W photography and / or 5 good reasons… not to!

Pygmalion Karatzas: Some images work nicely in black & white, while others in colour, and there are also cases where desaturated or muted colours add to the feel of the image. Some people even make things more graphic with parts of the frame in B&W and parts in colour. All these are fine in my opinion as long as they work aesthetically and visually with the image. I work in B&W, in colour and sometimes in between. I will edit some images both in B&W and colour, then I will decide which version I prefer more, sometimes the choice is obvious that one works and the other doesn’t; but there are also times that I like both edits and I will use them in different contexts. For example the first image in this feature (Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle) has been edited in both versions, the B&W fits well in the ‘Boomeritis’ series while the colour works better in the ‘Nortigo’ series. The colour version adds a layer of visual information, the B&W version subtracts a layer of visual information. Technically speaking, I could push contrast and dodge & burn more in the B&W, whereas if you do it in colour in tends to oversaturate and looses its natural feel. I have read some beautiful explanations and analyses on the use and affect of B&W photography, I do agree with some of their points. In some cases colour can be distracting to how the photographer wants the viewer to experience his image, and a B&W treatment can add take the viewer beyond our usual ways of perception. I have also noticed the transition of postmodern photography to colour, I can appreciate their view that making a colour image work can be more difficult and their position for a return to realism at that particular evolution of photographic history. I have answered around the question because I prefer not to give such “aphoristic” statements. If one considers the broader field, things are not so black and white (pun intended).