What can though one really see in the photographs of these buildings? The impenetrable details of the public buildings do not just remain in the obvious comment of a hopeless demand for transparency but invite us to think more deeply of our own personal need to look behind the facades of the institutions.

Just like Antonioni uses the ‘shadow chasing’ park photograph to comment, among others, on the superficiality of the swinging London in the 60’s, so does the escaping detail in Hatziyannaki’s series: through the failure to illuminate the ‘dark side’ of the buildings comments on the general psychology of crisis in Athens today, as well as, on the weakness to comprehend the globalised language of the recession which was enforced rapidly by the media in order to justify the degradation of everyday life with confusing financial terms.

Referring to conceptual photo-essays which form new narratives by focusing on details of existing images, as much as in paparazzi photos in the tabloids and the close-ups of detective movies, these details question the notorious relation between photography and truth by drawing our attention to the continuous reconceptualization of the image within each changing socio-political framework.

Despina Zefkili
(Secrets and Crises, Cube Art Editions, 2013)

Secrets and Crises's catalogue was published by Cube Art Editions. The book is available for orders here.