PhD candidate
Short Biography
Constantinos-Sophocles Constantinou (b. 1990) is a photographer, filmmaker, and visual artist based between Limassol and Athens. His interdisciplinary practice spans photography, moving image, installation, sound, and archival research, with a central focus on memory, landscape, and cultural identity. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of West Attica, Athens, with a dissertation titled: “In Search of ‘Cypriotness’ through Landscape Photography: Mythologies and Anti-Mythologies.”
He holds an MA in Video Production, Audiovisual Media and Motion Graphics from the University of West Attica and a BA in Photography and Audiovisual Arts from the Technological Educational Institute of Athens. As part of the Erasmus program, he studied analogue photography, sculpture, and installation at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. In 2018, he completed his internship at the National University of Arts in Bucharest as an instructor leader alongside Professor Dr. Roxana Trestioreanu, focusing on photography teaching in a studio-based environment.
He has received several awards and distinctions, including the First Prize in the Young Greek Photographers exhibition at the Kythera Photographic Encounters (2017), the Juror of Merit Award at the Grand Prix de la Découverte in Paris (2013), and state scholarships from both the Cyprus and Hellenic Scholarship Foundations.
Constantinou currently teaches photography, fundamentals of cinema, and video art at The Cyprus Academy of Art and serves as a Special Scientist at the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts at the Cyprus University of Technology, where he teaches photography. His work has been presented in museums and festivals across Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, the USA, and beyond, and he has participated in numerous artistic and research projects in Europe, India, and the Middle East.
He is the founder of the Cyprus Photography Center, a research and production hub dedicated to Cypriot photographic identity, with a strong emphasis on the collection and study of photographic archives and photobooks. Since 2024, he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Photography & Theory (IAPT).
PhD Dissertation Abstract
Title: In Search of “Cypriotness” through Landscape Photography: Mythologies and AntiMythologies
This dissertation explores the photographic representation of the Cypriot landscape, aiming to highlight landscape photography as a narrative medium and a vehicle of cultural memory and identity. The research initially focuses on the late Ottoman period in Cyprus (1839–1878), spanning from the invention of photography to the island’s transfer to the British Empire. Depending on the findings, the investigation may extend into the British colonial period (up to 1960).
The study examines photographic material primarily produced by travellers and later works, both artistic and institutional, that depict and interpret the Cypriot landscape. The central inquiry concerns how such images construct, sustain, or challenge dominant historical narratives and how they contribute to the shaping of a historically and politically situated sense of “Cypriotness.”
The methodology is based on analysing primary material sourced from public and private photographic archives. The research unfolds in three stages: (a) chronological classification, (b) thematic/iconographic categorisation, and (c) semiotic analysis of selected case studies. The aim is to recover visual narratives, often overlooked or contested, that reflect the diverse perspectives embedded in representations of the landscape.
Special attention is given to landscape photography as a site for the reproduction of visual
stereotypes and as a source of symbolic memory. The role of “re-photographing” and recontextualising the same landscapes across time is critically examined, particularly in relation to their integration into collective memory and national discourse. The dissertation seeks to establish both a theoretical framework and archival foundation for understanding landscape photography in Cyprus, while mapping its significance in the formation of the island’s postcolonial cultural identity.
Keywords: Photography, Landscape, Cyprus, Myth, Reality