Skepticism
Last month, I ran my bi-annual tour on the magical island of Santorini, Greece. For me, Santorini is the ultimate place to practice what some landscape photographers might call ‘art’ photography – note that I did not say ‘fine art’, as the meaning of fine art is quite blurry. The villages are built on-top of the volcanic cliffs and are a real feast for the eyes. On every street corner, tiny path or ground level, a different picture just leaps out to be captured.
Santorini can totally change the way you see through your lens, and this is something that I always try to convey and encourage the participants to embrace; to offer them a different view/angle of our much-loved hobby/passion. It can be a bit intimidating at first, however, as you spend time walking along the cliff-top villages and lose yourself in the magic of your surroundings, everything seems to change. You leave behind all your prior knowledge, switch off this genre’s mentality and enter a completely new world; a world you never before knew existed, a world that could change the way you see photography forever.
Some of my participants can be a bit skeptical initially. They had perhaps expected more landscape photography to be available and, to be honest, Santorini has little ‘classic’ landscape photography to show for itself. However, what it lacks in ‘classic’, it offers tenfold in ‘art’. By opening their minds to the beauty of the area and allowing it to inspire them, every single person had some exceptional images to take back with them. The unique Greek hospitality and incredible food perfectly encapsulate the experience and are deserving of a whole letter of their own, so I’ll leave that for another time!

Dimitri Vasileiou, Editor of LPM
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