With a title drawn from the venerable honorific of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, “Mother of the Churches” is a photographic record of the Patriarchate, the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, the Orthodox monasteries of Judea and the declining Greek community of Jerusalem - the fruit of the photographer’s residence in Palestine and the occupied territories during the winter of 1982-83. The locations include, among others, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Lavra of Saint Sava (Mar Saba), the Monastery of Sarantarion (Karantina) and the Monastery of the Prophet Elias. Already during the early 1980s, tensions had begun to emerge between the Patriarchate and Israeli ultranationalists, as also between the Patriarchate, whose highest ecclesiastical offices are filled almost exclusively by Greeks, and the Orthodox flock of Palestine, which naturally consists of Palestinian Arabs. Referring to the first publication of this work in the magazine Chartis, Nikos Panagiotopoulos noted that the photographer “…expresses himself directly, clearly and simply, without linguistic or visual verbalisms […] He almost invariably works with available natural light, developing a straightforward relationship with the subjects photographed, something reflected in their expressions. He neither patronises nor condescends to them, nor on the contrary does he glorify or romanticise them”.
Exhibition history
• 1983 "Contemporary Greek Photography", Photography Centre of Athens, 10-29 October (group show)
• 1984 Cambridge Darkroom, Cambridge, England
• 1984 Photography Centre of Athens, Athens, Greece
• 1986 Dryphoto, Prato, Italy