PhD candidate
Konstantinos S. Konstantinou was born and raised in Athianou.
He is a graduate of the Department of “Photography and Audiovisual Arts”, the School of Graphic Arts and Artistic Studies of the Higher Technological Educational Institution of Athens.
He holds a master’s degree in “Video Production, Audiovisual Media and Animated Graphics”, from the University of Western Attica.
As a trainer he has participated in:
2023, Storytelling workshop and Lumière Minute, “HEY! Tell me your story!”, Social Policy and Action Organization, Grigri Projects and ALDA.
2022, Photographic Society of Cyprus, “Exploring Photographers”.
2020, Photographic Society of Cyprus, “Learning Photography”.
As a teacher he has worked in:
Cyprus University of Technology, Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts as a specialist scientist in the course “Photography II”. (2023-2024)
National University of Arts of Bucharest, as a photography workshop assistant through the Erasmus program: intership/shadowee (2018).
Training Centers of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus, teaching the course “Photographic Art” (2018-2020).
Today he works as a lecturer in photography, cinematography and video art at The Cyprus Academy of Arts.
Abstract of Doctoral Dissertation
Title: Searching for “Cypriotness” through landscape photography: Mythologies and Anti-mythologies.
The purpose of this Doctoral Thesis is to examine and highlight the photographic representation of the Cypriot landscape and by extension the narrative dynamics of landscape photography.
The context of the research is defined chronologically in the last four decades of Ottoman rule in Cyprus, from the discovery of photography in 1839 until the cession of Cyprus to the British Empire as a protectorate in 1878, bringing to the fore hidden aspects of the country’s photographic production in this particular period. The examination of the photographic findings will focus on the photographic approach and the choice of depicting the Cypriot landscape through the eyes of the photographers of the time, who were mainly travelers, – as well as the introduction of new aesthetic and ideological data. Based on the findings, the study will probably be extended in time to the period of the Anglo-occupation, given that historical and socio-political connections of the material with later periods may emerge.
At the same time, the role of the photographic depiction of the Cypriot landscape will be examined as a crucial element in the development of national identity and historical memory and consciousness. As well as the instrumentalization of the photographic landscape both by conquerors during the colonial period and during the independence of Cyprus until modern times.
As part of the research, photographic archives, both public and private, some of which may not have been researched and utilized, will be examined, looking for possible narratives with a different “view” that will be evaluated and subsequently highlighted.
The extraction of information from primary archival sources, combined with the methodological approach that will be applied for the classification, highlighting, analysis and documentation of the photographic finds, are a key pillar of the research.
The method of developing and documenting the photographic archival material will be implemented in three main stages:
a) chronological classification
b) classification according to content
c) semiotic analysis of study examples
The approach will be primarily photographic but essential parameters of the research will be historical, sociological, socio-political and anthropological extensions of landscape photography. In this context, we will look for stereotypical images, which have been transformed into modern symbols, shaping the collective memory, as well as the way in which the “re-photographing” of the same landscape, and its “repositioning” in a specific reading context is integrated with the end of time in collective memory. Specifically, the elements that characterize the modern perception of “Cypriotness” will be sought, and the photographic approaches to the Cypriot landscape will be explored which have played a decisive role in our modern perception in relation to the “historical” Cypriot landscape (mythologies and anti-mythologies). . This will be achieved by selecting cases for study and analysis, from the first photographic ventures to the newest photographic production and use of the medium.
Keywords:
Photography, Landscape, Cyprus, Myth, Reality