Maria Mavropoulou

Maria Mavropoulou, Portrait of iPhone 6s, 2018, Photograph printed on light box, 60 x 40 cm

The screens of the connectible devices we use are the only way we can have access to this parallel man-made universe, the Internet. Through those luminous windows we ceaselessly explore anything that caches our attention. Like an opposite of black holes, those glowing immersive gates promise limitless possibilities. Information, entertainment, human connection and much more, are available anywhere and anytime, breaking our physical bond with the reality that surrounds us.

Those devices guide us trough the real world, they answer our questions, they advice us and keep us company day and night. At the same time, they record our every move and our every choice, always with our permission. What exactly is their role among us? Are they just objects we use and control or is this a bidirectional relationship? Are they friends or enemies? Or are they a mirror, where we constantly seek our reflection as a confirmation of our existence

Maria Mavropoulou

www.mariamavropoulou.com

Maria Mavropoulou was born in 1989 and she lives and works in Athens, Greece.

She is an Athens School of Fine Arts graduate (2014) having attended courses of painting, sculpture, and photography. Currently, she is getting her Master in Fine Arts. (Athens School of Fine Arts). Her work has been presented in exhibitions in Greece and abroad, including Culturescapes festival, (Basel, Switzerland, 2017)Athens Photo Festival 2016, Krakow Photomonth 2016, Athens Biennale 5to6, 5th Thessaloniki Biennale, Mois de la photo (Paris, France,2014), European month of photography (Budapest, Hungary,2014), Fotoistanbul (Istanbul, Turkey,2014), Benaki Museum (Athens, Greece,2014).

She is a member of the collective of artists Depression Era that inhabit the urban and social landscapes of the crisis in Greece. (www.depressionera.gr ).

Although photography is the main medium that I use, I am strongly influenced by painting and sculptural practice.

I would define the procedure that I follow as “meta-directing”. For me, the hunt of the 'true' image is not the goal as in documentary photography or photojournalism, but rather the search of a raw material. I treat each photograph as an "object trouvé". The use of current technology allows me to shape at will the digital image in order to reflect the idea that I have in advance in my mind, in that way post-processing isn't just a corrective method but becomes a creative process through which directing after the actual shooting of the picture is possible.

The resulting images are at the boundary line between plausibility or not, potentiality and non-potentiality, random and constructed.
Playing with the perception of viewers I question the role and power of photography in an era that is dominated by it.