STREETSCAPES OF CHANIA
I live in Crete, an island which is a well-known tourist destination.
Just some decades ago, a few people were willing to make the journey to this place on the southernmost corner of Europe.But things changed...
Traveling became easier; people wanted to visit new places. Tourism grew exponentially. Crete became a major travel destination. Now, Cretan economy is heavily depended on the tourism industry. Everything revolves around tourism, and thus, the dominant touristic narrative seems to cast a shadow on everything that doesn’t support its reproduction. Aesthetically, the result is a constant repetition of images of beautiful sunny beaches, the prevalence of snapshots of glorious, highly saturated sunsets, and almost caricaturist portraits of "indigenous people" that imprint in the minds of people who visit a false reflection of what life on the island really is.
In a global level, people are becoming more and more location independent.
New technologies based on the internet increase our independence from the physical world. Now, a large number of people work “on the cloud”.
We create communities based on common ideas and interests. We choose to exist in digital tribes. We are less and less depended on physical locations. This reality became magnified through the catalyst of the pandemic.
In this kind of environment, travel is not anymore just a matter of leisure, it becomes a matter of identity and status. In fact, travelling becomes the means of the improvement of the self. Those who can’t travel are recognised as restricted, unable to enrich their individual existence due to their inability to move freely and choose where to live.
There is clearly a new divide.
This is a reality that the dominant division is between those “independent ” and able to travel anywhere they want, who are in search of a higher level of consciousness which surpasses local and national boundaries towards an identity of a global citizen, and on the other hand "the locals"; those who are bound to a place, who can’t work from distance, who build and belong in communities and depend from them, who hold local identities, and make necessary compromises.
Many times, those who are bound to specific locations are also working class people. These are the people who are mostly affected by the rise of rent prices caused partially by the influx of tourists and travelers.
In the intersection of these two realities, there is a battle for meaning.
My effort is to bring back to the surface some of the richness of life, the stories and events where everyday people of Chania – like myself - make meaning of their life. The alternative views that don’t support the sunny, happy, positive narrative about life that tourists and digital nomads expect to find on a destination like Crete.
It is a life where restrictions exist, but it is also a life where people with conflicting ideas despite their differences find ways to coexist, synthesize opposing views to create new meanings that alter their common reality.In my body of work, I try to scratch the surface of the touristic product known as "Crete". I present the view of the local, not of a location independent digital nomad, traveler or tourist.
On these pages what you will find is a photographic collage composed of moments in life as they were captured through my street and documentary photography, and news reporting which will offer a variety of perspectives that defy the dominant traveller’s vision.
Most of the material presented here is from Chania, my hometown.
Hope you enjoy.
