Isola

Dates

2020 - 2022
Author

John Perivolaris
Location Scotland, United Kingdom

The series began in 2020, in a period of isolation on Arran during the first UK coronavirus lockdown. The detachment afforded by living through this period lead me to on my own transnational identity as an islander and a photographer.

Resonating with the etymology of the word 'island', Isola is a suite of photographs reflecting on the idea of the island as an existential condition. The images were photographed at the opposite ends of Europe, in the Western Isles of Scotland and the islands of the Northern Aegean, acknowledging the fact that my life has been defined by the journey from my family origins on the Greek island of Chios and the Scottish island of Arran, where I now live. This has lead me since then to find find parallels between islands at the extreme of Europe to the point where, in this work, they merge to become the Island that defines my experience and imagination as a European.

© John Perivolaris - Image from the Isola photography project

A photograph taken in the Aegean giving mythical form to the search for a spirit of place from the in-between point of view of the son of Greek parents who, like so many others, were obliged to leave their country as part of the post-WWII diaspora.

A self-portrait taken on a return visit to the island of Chios to take the photographs from there included in this suite of images. If this is the search for a sense of place it is also one for my place in it.

Taken in the ossuary of the monastery of Nea Moni, which preserves the remains of many of those who died in an 1822 massacre. Viewing these in the aftermath of a coronavirus pandemic that claimed so many and equally cruelly was particularly painful for me

This and the following three images attempt to convey a sense of the mountainous landscape of my current island home, a landscape that curiously mirrors the coastal contours of the islands of the north-eastern Aegean, especially when viewed from the sea.

A photograph of the volcanic island of Ailsa Craig, viewed from my home on Arran directly facing it.

The volcanic black beach of Emporio, southern Chios.

Volcanic activity has shaped both the islands of the Aegean and those of Scotland. Lockdown afforded me the opportunity to observe my immediate physical environment as a way of navigating hitherto uncharted internal geography.

This and the next two photographs were taken at a neolithic settlement on the Island of Chios. My intention has been to balance the deep geological time of the material environment of the islands I photographed and their highly changeable light and skies.

The island of my origins and Arran lie on migratory routes for birds. Observing their flight is particularly poignant for me since my own life has been defined by migration, leading me to now live on a Scottish island marked by a history of migration.

Maritime activity defines the islands of the Aegean islands and the Western Isles of Scotland. I am the first member of my family not to pursue a career at sea, though my life as a photographer has meant no less wandering than that of my forefathers.

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Isola

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