Project 'Caryatis' goes to Epirus Greece
Acquire a museum-grade print from Epirus for your space. Help towards the realisation of George Tatakis' Ethnographic work.
In the rugged landscapes of northwestern Greece's mainland, Epirus is a region steeped in history, where ancient traditions and breathtaking scenery converge. Recently, I had the privilege of journeying through Epirus, collaborating with the Lyceum Club of Greek Women in Ioannina for my photographic project Caryatis. Our mission? To explore and document the captivating world of traditional women's dresses across Epirus' diverse locales. Ioannina is the capital of the Epirus region in Greece and it is a vibrant, beautiful city featuring a serene lake. It is roughly a five-hour drive from Athens which passes through the Rion-Antirrion bridge. This historical region took its name from “Apiros Chora”, a Doric Greek phrase that means infinite, vast land. Among its famous tourist places, there are the traditional villages of Zagorochoria (or Zagoria), the Vikos gorge, the region's mountains and monasteries and more.
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Kerasovo: A village in Konitsa, also known as “Ayia Paraskevi”
As soon as I arrived in Ioannina, I had already arranged for the first photography session. We would be travelling to Kerasovo, a village known as Ayia Paraskevi, which is near Konitsa. This was another two-hour drive to the north of Ioannina. I met the ladies at the Airport of Ioannina and started our trip to this region of Epirus. Machi would be my travel guide for today and for many other days to come, so she took the shotgun seat.
We drove to the village where the women adorned dresses that reflected the area's natural beauty and cultural heritage. This part of Greece is known for its rainy climate with this day being no exception. A slight drizzle accompanied our session and it kept raining. Only a few windows of time allowed us to capture the scenes outdoors.
We scouted the area and found a local house that kept its traditional colour where I made the first photographs. We later ventured into the mountainside of the region and found a place with a beautiful natural landscape. A touch of fog added to the beauty of the scenery.
Vovousa: Patterns on Black of Eastern Zagori
On the next day, our adventure led us to a town in the Eastern Zagori, Vovousa. Vovousa is a beautiful place in the Zagorochoria region, famous for its carpenter heritage. Aoos River splits the village in two, with each part connected by a stone bridge in the centre. Vovousa is one of the entrances to the Valia Calda National Park. Inside this National Park, is the river “Aspropotamos - (White River)”, where locals would gather silver in the past.
Four women and a man wore the local traditional costumes and we strolled around the village to make some photographs. The rain was pouring and creating photographs outdoors became an adventure. Our first shooting took place inside a local traditional house. After that, we went outside and made some more images around the river and at the local sawmill.
Sarakatsani of Gyftokampos: Nomadic Heritage in Attire
A highlight of our journey was meeting the Sarakatsani, a nomadic group whose lifestyle revolves around herding. In Gyftokampos, seven people wore these costumes and we went on an adventure of photography around an old local settlement, featuring huts of the Sarakatsani of this area.
The rain was once again pouring and the ground was soaking wet. We had a coffee at the tavern in this place, waiting for the rain to stop to carry out the photography session. Unfortunately, the rain kept on going so we had a fun adventure to succeed. The assistants of the shooting took umbrellas and escorted the models to the appropriate location. The garments are fragile and old, so they must not be exposed to rain. As soon as I was ready to shoot, I shouted: “Off with the umbrellas!” Everyone who was holding one would move away to take the photograph. We ended up having dinner, wine and tsipouro at the local tavern.
Pogoni: Impeccable Epirus Craftsmanship and Uniqueness
Pogoni is an administrative region of Epirus in the Northwest, near the borders with Albania. In this part of Epirus, we find costumes very different from the rest of Greece. The dominant colour is white. The dress features a beautiful white silk headscarf, over four metres long. The scarf needs to be put on in a specific way so that its red tag lands on a specific place on the woman's forehead. Women used to tie that by themselves. This scarf is deeply connected to ancient Greece, because of its Doric style.
We used two different locations for our shooting. One was an old local house owned by the man in the photographs. This house is amongst the oldest in the village of Paleopyrgos, where the photo shoot took place. The second place was a local barn, where we took more photographs.
