My throat was itching, from all the dust and dirt that I had inhaled, even when I was back home, unloading the memory card of my camera. In contradiction to natural ecosystems, men's creations tend to decay in the most obnoxious way, when left untended. And this building, once full of life and productivity, has now become the home of garbage, dust and decomposing, dead animals.
And a few signs, here and there, testimony of the activity that used to take place, a few decades ago. Come with me for a photo tour into the empty shell of an old textile industry, one of the many small ones that used to exist all over Greece and are now closed and abandoned.
The building has been stripped from all the machines and equipment, more than twenty years ago and ever since, it has been vandalised, intruded and looted, multiple times. Broken glasses, ball of yarns and trash are all over the floor, under layers of dust. It looks like it has been a shelter for homeless people as well as stray animals and whoever has entered during those years, has left a mark behind to be integrated with the remains of its former use.
As much as I felt sad for the decay of the place, I couldn't overlook the evident photographic opportunities that it was giving me. The first few minutes I hesitated to take the camera out of its bag. I wandered around a bit, catching the vibe of the setting, moving back and forth to grasp the reality of the present situation and only then I stared shouting and capturing the images, I had already seen.
I don't know about you but whenever I raise my camera, I feel that I am distancing from reality, putting the camera's frame between me and the world as a barrier. As if I am watching on a screen and not actually been there. So sometimes I postpone entering into the "photographer mode" when I want firstly to experience and then capture an event or a place or whatever situation I might find myself into.
The reason of this visit was to explore, with a few friends, the possibility of a new use for the building, as an exhibition space for artworks. The idea is not bad at all, the building itself has wonderful features and the atmosphere of the old industry serves brilliantly the concept of hosting modern art.
But, there are a lot of "buts" in the equation and as you all know, reality has a very brutal way of squashing noble ideas!
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
Commenting, upvoting and rebloging are highly appreciated!