B&W Minimalism Magazine – Issue 01 (Cover, Feature & Interview)
“Minimalist photography is a way for me to focus my photographic visions within a matrix of lines, edges, intersections, contrast and angles (i.e., ‘LEICA patterns’) to capture the essential expression of a subject within a composition while freeing the subject from being defined and restrained by other elements within the frame. To use an analogy, minimalistic photos are haikus and aphorisms rather than epic poems or treatises on a subject. They say a lot with so little. These types of photographs also offer an aesthetic, synesthetic and mindful experience for me. It is what I have tried to accomplish in both my “Prelude to Silence” series of snowscapes and my “Simplexity” series of architectural portraits highlighted in this issue.”
Photographer Captures Breathtaking Photos of Iceland’s Rugged Landscapes
“Everyone has an impression of Iceland before they go there the first time, but it is even better once you are there,” he told weather.com. “Iceland was love at first sight for me, an otherworldly experience.”
Archisearch.gr Feature – The Integral Lens Series on Architectural Photography
“…Photos from several of his exemplary series based on his MCM (Muted Colour Metallics) colour style and his Zonal Shape System principles for Black and White photography. The photos include the series ‘Desertera’ of the Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre in Toronto, the ‘Dubaiisms’ taken during workshops he conducted in Dubai, the ‘Simplexity’ series of minimalistic archistract portraits of iconic buildings throughout the world, the ‘Cosmopolis’ series which is as an ode to his home city, and work from a very recent adventure in New York City.”
Digital Photographer Magazine (UK) – Issue 164
“Seeing in black and white gives you the ability to combine the substance of what the subject actually is with the essence of what else the subject could be.”
“The how and what of taking a photograph becomes secondary to why we make the photograph the way we do to better understand our motivations as artists. It is my way of creating a parallel world that embraces the paradox that reality is both negotiable and essential to fine-art photography.”
The Greek Star – Life Through The Lens
A brief interview about my photography and my heritage.
“History of Photography” College Course Interview
I am far too young in my photography career to be considered part of the history of photography, but I have to say that it was quite an honour to be asked to be part of a student’s project for a US College course on the “History of Photography”. When students are interviewing the likes of Cole Thompson and Michael Kenna, to name a few, you know you are in good company even though you do not consider yourself a historical figure but a passionate artist.
Arcspace – The Camera – An Iliad of Light & Shadows
“When I photograph architecture, I do not want to take a photo of the Mona Lisa as most people see it, to use an analogy, I want to create something completely different that makes me smile, that provides an enigmatic and ethereal quality to the subject in the photograph. I don’t want to simply take a photo of architecture but I want to reimagine it by defying and capturing the physics of the moment in an artistic way by, turning the world upside-down in my compositions, waiting for a unique interplay of light and shadows that fall on the building, abstracting the abstract forms inherent in the architecture, and use both conventional, long exposure and even infrared photographic techniques to create a chronology from chaos to clarity and back again as part of my photographic vision.”
Topaz Labs – “Vision Drawings”
A term he coined as “oramagraphy”, International award-winning photographer John Kosmopoulos explains his aesthetic from pre-visualization to realized vision.
“What you capture with your camera is photography. What you do before, during and after you take a photograph is a complimentary term I coined as “oramagraphy,” explains Toronto native John Kosmopoulos, who derived the word on a quest to personally challenge himself for expansion of vision as a photographer.
121Clicks.com – “Most Compelling Fine Art Photography”
In this interview, I lay the groundwork for some fertile thoughts on black and white photography by considering a new theory based on a Nobel Prize-Winning Observation that I call the “LEICA theory” in photography. I also talk about the “G-Zone” and why B&W Photography should also focus on the Gray Zone a lot more and call it BGW photography.
“We often think of the eye as a camera. However, when we consider our own physical vision, our brain translates raw reality into lines, edges, intersections, contrasts, and angles (notice the acronym) readily before we can perceive and make sense of what we are seeing. This is something that Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientists have demonstrated empirically and this may be why black and white photography often offers such primal emotions, aesthetic qualities, and an eternal essence for artists. It may also be the way we shape the compositional ingredients of RAW reality of our photographs to convey a felt aesthetic in our own psychological or photographic vision before or after post-processing. I think that is why abstract and architectural photography, to name a few, can be so powerful at times.”
Odyssey of Vision – A Slice of Silence Spotlight Interview
One of my more important interviews where I offer a definition of “fine art” photography, the “FEEL Principle” of fine art photography, and unpack my own vision with a psychological analysis of photography.
The light beckons me
Pure visions rise from the mist
Wisdom finds a home.
“I would describe my photographic vision as the pursuance of an exquisite enlightenment with the practice of an insightful imagination.
Let me explain further: there is nothing greater in photography than that “whisper to a sigh” moment, when a beautifully challenging scene speaks to you and you feel this sense of wonderment befall you because you know you have captured something meaningful, something that is part of your photographic vision. I have defined my own philosophy of photography as “eclectic aesthetic fine art” (EAFA). I believe in capturing the complexity of beauty in the simplest of moments– focusing on a variety of multiple subjects and using creative methods such as long exposure photography to realize them.”
“For me, art, in all its forms, is like the ‘fifth dimension’ where there is a confluence of ideas and influences for every artist when they are creating new worlds seen and yet to be seen with their art. It is where every artist finds Promethean fire to fuel the beautiful mind.”
“The “FEEL principle of fine art photography” (Feels right – Exposed right – Esthetically right – Looks right) that predominantly taps into the right side or “artistic side” of the brain (thus the use of the word “right”) but also both sides of the brain. These factors come together as a gestalt of fine art.”
Interesting Photographers Interview
An interview where I talk about my photographic and post-processing techniques.
Link: Interesting Photographers – John Kosmopoulos
Excerpt from Interview
“I tend to allow many of my personal aspirations and inspirations in art, literature, music, and science to collide to create new worlds within my photography. It is one of the main reasons that I can never get bored of photography and its promises to fulfill my artistic side. Architectural photography is like listening to Mozart or Miles Davis for me; abstract photography is like translating a novel written in the language of quantum mechanics, and long exposure photography is like standing in a photograph of an eternal Proustian memory cocooned by a harmonious silence. I am very mindful of the ecology I am in, whether it is a city or rural landscape. I study it from all angles. It is almost as if I have to slowly breathe in the scenery, as if allowing a bottle of wine to breathe, so that I can get my senses to acclimate and discover an enlightened aesthetic wherever I happen to be with my camera. Inspiration abounds wherever you are. You just have to allow the nascent eyes that photography gives you to open wide and shut when you feel the inspiration.”
Canadian Photographers Online (CPO Magazine)
A Showcase for Image Artists
Link: CPO Interview – John Kosmopoulos
An in-depth interview about the 3 C’s of expressive-creative skills and the phenomenology of photography.
Excerpts From Interview
“I do not believe in rules of photography in absolute terms. I believe in practical principles of photography that foster an authenticity, aesthetic, and affirmation in an artist’s photography which inevitably leads the photographer to discover this synaesthesia of vision and voice in the pursuit of their own fine art photography.”
“There is an inherent aesthetic sensitivity and sensory prioritization when observing patterns in nature and man-made objects that draws us in as photographers. I often immerse myself in a quiet contemplation within the kinetic geometry and opposing symmetries of elements within the ecology of any space. I attempt to find something distinctive in the interplay of subjects in my compositions, a fleeting instinctual and emotive formula that Henri Cartier Bresson called a “definitive moment”, and a contextual and psychological fit to my own vision and voice as a photographer.”
“Photographers are neuroscientists. art historians, and futurists at the same time. We are also sculptors of perception, painters of light and forms, and poets that use the language of math and physics (e.g., motion). As a scientist-practitioner and educator in the behavioural sciences, it comes naturally for me to interpret the experience of art as a “biopsychosocial” phenomenon. Our brains search for patterns to make sense of things, to connect dots even though they may be invisible at times. We learn from our experience to make those dots visible. We invest in neuroesthetic principles (e.g., symmetry) while producing something almost ethereal – the unique and evocative signature of the artist – whether we are aware of it or not.”
Red Square Gallery – Forms In Frozen Motion
Photo Curation & Interview by Brancolina (Flickr Moniker).
Link: RSG Interview
A: “I am fascinated by the geometry, symmetry and abstract nature of any urban ecology. When I analyze architecture, I tend to dissect structures and compose them in my own mathematical alchemy of angles, light, time and space. My analysis often runs counter to the intention and function of the urban landscape. This is my way of harmonizing the city in the way that I envision it. I often critique city planners as a photographer for their lack of vision in creating aesthetically pleasing spaces to live in. Architecture often offers the music and photography offers the lyrics click by click – the unique signature of the photographer.”