Shades of Love: Photographs Inspired by the Poems of C. P. Cavafy
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
Shades of Love: Photographs Inspired by the Poems of C. P. Cavafy Details
About the Author John Wood is an award-winning poet and photography critic who has written and edited over thirty books. In 2005, he co-curated the Smithsonian Institution/National Museum of American Art exhibition “Secrets of the Dark Chamber: The Art of the American Daguerreotype.”. His latest book of poetry, Endurance and Suffering, won the 2009 Deutscher Fotobuchpreis Gold Medal.Constantine P. Cavafy, also known as Konstantin or Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Kavaphes (April 29, 1863 – April 29, 1933) was a renowned Greek poet who lived in Alexandria and worked as a journalist and civil servant. In his poetry he examined critically some aspects of Christianity, patriotism, and homosexuality, though he was not always comfortable with his role as a nonconformist. He published 154 poems; dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. Cavafy was instrumental in the revival and recognition of Greek poetry both at home and abroad. His poems are, typically, concise but intimate evocations of real or literary figures and milieu that have played roles in Greek culture. Uncertainty about the future, sensual pleasures, the moral character and psychology of individuals, homosexuality, and a fatalistic existential nostalgia are some of the defining themes.Edward Albee is one of the greatest living American dramatists, best known for his works Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story, The Sandbox, and The American Dream. His plays have been performed on stages around the globe. He has received many awards, including three Pulitzer Prizes for drama and a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement (2005). Read more
Reviews
SHADES OF LOVE: PHOTOGRAPHS INSPIRED BY THE POEMS OF C.P. CAVAFY is one of the most visually stunning books to be released this year. In this elegantly created book are new English translations of the poems of Constantine P. Cavafy (1863 - 1933) by David Connolly, a Professor of Translation Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and to accompany the release of these new translations, Greek artist and photographer Dimitri Yeros has paired each poem with an image he feels enhances that poem. Cavafy once wrote "Art knows how to shape forms of Beauty, / almost imperceptibly, completing life, " and this pairing of the poems with the sensitive photographs of Dimitri Yeros has indeed 'brought us an art that helps complete life'.After an appropriate Foreword by Edward Albee and an Introduction by John Wood, the book offers images and poems together, many highlighted by photographs from the community of art: Gore Vidal, Edward Albee, Naquib Mahfuz, Arman, Charles Heri Ford, William Weslow, Duane Michaels, Pierre et Gilles, and Michel Tournier. The remainder of the photographs match the content of the longing and desire of these poems: the male nude models are artistically posed in sculptural forms that not only echo the poetic message of Cavafy but also remind us of the architecture of ancient Greece. Yeros creates his images both in studio where the lighting can be very dramatic, and in the villages - in front of stone walls or as part of the spectacular landscape, using models alone or in relation to other models.Dimitri Yeros has successfully partnered with the deceased Cavafy to present anew the sensuous beauty of these freshly translated poems. Reading and looking at this book is in and of itself an artistic experience. Grady Harp, December 10
