Portraits through the lens of Stelios B. Skopelitis of great artists and intellectuals who have carried — and continue to carry — Greece within and beyond its borders, and who taught us the meaning of beauty and integrity…
PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS
1975 – Neoclassical Houses of Athens and Piraeus
Dodoni – Gnosi – Olkos
Commendation from the Academy of Athens (1975)
1976 – Towers of Mytilene
Exantas
1977 – Neoclassical Ruins
Vergos
1977 – The Mansions of Lesbos
I. Z. Zacharopoulos
1984 – Gazi
Nea Synora
1995 – The Gaze
Gnosi
1995 – Place of Silence
First Cemetery of Athens
Nea Synora
1995 – The Painter G. Tsarouchis
Sponsored by EKTER
1996 – Lavrio
Sponsored by the Public Power Corporation (PPC)
2004 – Fabien d’après Rodin
Agra
2005 – Soles of the Statues – Athens
Museum of the City of Athens
Exantas
Sponsor: I. F. Costopoulos Foundation
WRITINGS
1963 – Journey Without a Beginning
One-act play
Private edition
1994 – 100 Bd de la Villette
Gavriilidis Editions
1995 – In the Flow of the River
Odos Panos
1995 – Diptych Monologue
Odos Panos
2002 – Notes of a Greek Photographer on Photography
Agra / Benaki Museum
2012 – Agrampeli and Ivy
Gavriilidis Editions
2014 – The Dark Side of Photography, or Why Photography Is (Not) Art
Roes Editions
2016 – Sixty-One Nocturnes and One Dawn Song
Gavriilidis Editions
2017 – A-MOR-T
Gavriilidis Editions
2019 – The Clocks of the Winds
Gavriilidis Editions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1982 – Skoufa Gallery
Images of Athens
1984 – French Institute of Athens
A Greek View of Paris
1987 – Patras International Festival
On Love
1988 – National Gallery
Gazi
1996 – Serpieri Installations, Lavrio
Images from the Installations
Supported by the National Technical University of Athens
1997 – Ileana Tounta Gallery
Triptychs
1997 – Gallery 7
D’après Rodin
1998 – Art Athina, Gallery 7
People and Landscapes
1999 – Gallery 7
Snapshots
1999 – Diana-Yiulia Gallery
Eros and the City
2000 – Art Space 24
The Photographer’s Hideaways
2002 – Gallery 7
The Books of Heraclitus
2002 – Famagusta Gate, Cyprus
Nicosia: The Last Wall of Europe
2003 – Melina Mercouri Cultural Centre, Athens
Nicosia: The Last Wall of Europe
2003 – S. Tryfon Arts Centre, Molyvos, Lesbos
The Books of Heraclitus
2004 – Gallery 7
Nocturnes
2006 – Gallery 3
Fifteen Skies and One Immortal
2009 – The Art Foundation
Anti-City
2012 – Poems and Crimes (Gavriilidis Editions)
Flowers, Shells, and a Lemon
2017 – Triptychs
Carob Mill Cultural Centre, Epimenidis Cultural Society, Panormos
Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1982 – Athens Photography Center
Nude
1983 – Gallery F
Nude 1983
1995 – Zoumboulakis Galleries
Portraits of G. Tsarouchis
1996 – V. Drakos Organization
One-Act Plays
1997 – Ileana Tounta Gallery
Summer 1997 Group Exhibition
2000 – Gallery 7
Proposals
2000 – Diana-Yiulia Gallery
Three Years of Diana-Yiulia
2001 – Lentzou Gallery
SIC ART
2002 – Zoumboulakis Galleries
Portraits
2004 – Art Athina
Gallery 7
2004 – Associazione Culturale Femminile Ellenica
Naples, Italy
2005 – Photosynkyria
Mysteries and Miracles
Thessaloniki
2005 – La Decision Absolute
BOOZE / Carte Blanche IV
2007 – Tsatsis Projects
Between Earth and Sky
Thessaloniki
He has been a member of the Chamber of Fine Arts of Greece since 1994. His works are held in private collections in Greece and the United States, as well as in the Municipal Gallery of Athens and the Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts in Rethymno.
For many years, he was a columnist for the newspaper Ta Nea. Many of his essays have been published in leading newspapers and magazines, along with interviews featuring his work. He has also appeared frequently on television in connection with his artistic career.
In 1983, filmmaker Lakis Papastathis devoted an episode of the television series Paraskinio to his work, presenting the complete body of his work up to that time.
“…Photographing the figures who have carried — and continue to carry — Greece both within and beyond its borders. They taught me how to think and how to feel… They taught me to act with integrity because they themselves were, and still are, people of integrity… I hope you will be moved by the faces looking back at you; otherwise, I have failed.”
These are among the words written at the beginning of To Vlemma by photographer Stelios Skopelitis.
By photographing one hundred and four figures from the worlds of art and intellect, capturing “the trace of their faces,” Skopelitis allows his gaze to intersect with that of both the photographed subject and the viewer. Through this meeting of gazes, the absent are called back into presence, along with the social and historical memory they embody. After all, what would a face be without its gaze?