During the previous week I visited London, on my walk I passed by Selfridges and the window display really got   my attention and therefore I stopped for a while to notice better the amazing images of nature that was presented on the windows of the department store. Reading more about this project I found that ‘A Return to Nature’ is a joint outdoor show by photographers Marco Kesseler and Cameron Bensley. The exhibition celebrates the beauty and fragility of the natural world, our relationship with it, and sparks a dialogue around the impacts of climate change. ‘A Return to Nature’ is celebration of the natural world. Based one a National Trust reseacrh awareness and appreciation for nature rose by 46 per cent over the UK’s summer lockdown period,as a lot of people selected to pass more time outdoors. “Noticing nature can not only bring significant improvements to our mental health, but also to nature’s wellbeing,”. Our reconnection with nature during these difficult times is how the idea for the Return to Nature exhibition beganI really liked the juxtapositionof nature and plastic on the images. I foundthese images really powerful and interesting and for this reason I decided to research more these two photographer displayed on the windows of Selfridges.

Creating my business cards, I worked for another time with one of my  favourite techniques, natural dying. Every time that I create colours from nature I  tried to use different materials in order to get more knowledge and ideas about this technique. This time I used sunflowers, strawberries, berries and red cabbage. I though of filming the process in order to create a video showing the natural dying technique.

Creating my business card I wanted to create something relevant to my interests that would reflect my personality. Being from a very early stage interested on sustainability and natural dyes I though of incorporating this technique in my cards, after brainstorming different ideas of the way I could do this I though of boiling natural elements such as flowers, fruits and vegetables and use the colours produced in my cards.  Therefore, I purchased online plastic business card holders and I put inside different natural dyes as well as petals from the flowers. Each card is unique since  they have different colours of dyes and a variety of flower petals. I want to make the cards look coherent and similar but also having some small characteristic  that would differentiate each one from the rest. In a symbolic way I wanted it show that although all the elements and species on the planet may look similar they have these small details that make them special and unique.The floating flowers inside the dyes make the cards more interactive and playful and it actually remind of some games that I used to have as a child.  Through this interactive and  playful aspect I am aiming to make my audience engage with my business cards so that they will stay on their mind

.

“Il ritrno alla natura” meaning in italian “return to nature ” is a zoom call that I made with a model in Greece, my home country. The concept of the shooting was the reconnection of humans with nature during the lockdown . All of us came closer to nature and developed a strong relationship with it. As our reality changed completely from the day that the virus entered our lives, many old habits like doing picnics on parks and going for walks at nature revived.The aim of the shooting was to depict this reconnecting with the environment.The shooting took place on the balcony of the model, I wanted to keep the styling quiet simple in order to focus on the beauty of nature drawn on th colours of the plants, the flowers and the sky. Most of the images are screenshots from my iPad during the video call while some of the pictures were captured with the camera. I decided to mainly used the screenshot because the analysis of the pictures was more clear as they were shadows and reflections created on those from the camera.The majority of the clothes used for the outfits of the shooting were from online vintage shops like vestiare collective and nstygal. The rest of the clothes were pieces that the model already had, as I wanted to stay as sustainable as possible without choosing fast fashion brands or purchasing new garments for the shooting trying contributing to a zero waste shoot.This was my first attempt making a zoom through zoom, but I have seen that lately due to the outbreak of the pandemic many photographer have worked in this way and I though of experimenting as well.  Overall, I was satisfied from the results of the shooting as they the pictures reflected the beauty of nature though the colours of the flowers, sea and sky. I think that the outfits of the model, although they were minimal and simple added a vintage and at the same time

natural aesthetic on the image.

After the still life shooting of fruits and vegetables that I did, I decided to play around on Photoshop with editing applying different filters on the original images. As I was experimented I turned the subject of the images into negatives and I noticed that very interesting and beautiful colours were born. Therefore, I decided to experiment more and I created collages with the subject of the original images and those that I edited. For the collages I used bright vibrant colours on the background as I wanted to create contract with the colours of the objects which were more pastel and light. Overall, I liked a lot the patterns that were created from this collages and I though of using them to create stickers, postcard or even stamps for t-shirts and hoodies in the future.

A year ago today..The beginning of a new era, the “mask era”. A year ago today no one of us would imagine that face mask will be the most necessary item that we could carry with us,  even more useful than our wallets or keys.  Face masks, the latest  fashion trend, the new accessory, the new indivisible item of our daily life. Wanting to depict this harsh reality of the pandemic in a more playful and humorist way I created a shooting of still life objects.Therefore, I placed face masks and gloves on fruits and vegetables, symbolising our current life  where wearing a face mask has been obligatory for most of the activities that we can do. Wearing a face mask has been necessary in order to protect ourselves and prevent the spread of the pandemic. Additionally, for the shooting I used glasses filled with water in different shapes and styles in order to play with the reflection of fruits created on the water inside the glasses. Different shapes and colours were formed and I really enjoyed the results of the shooting. Although, it was quite in professional since I made in my house using prompts  that I have, overall I was very satisfied from the final outcomes of this shooting.