Hallucinatory photos of Greece
Thai-British filmmaker Shane Bunnag reveals a soul ever in touch with the elemental spirits of place in the photographic series Dryopes, on display at the Kathmandu Photo Gallery until June 24.
In what is his first solo photographic exhibition, the Bangkok-based independent director depicts the nature of the Mani Peninsula of Greece, his long-lost childhood home. He captures the soul of each site through long exposure shots of his model dancing in worship of the local gods.
The resulting images are hallucinatory, like the sacred mushroom visions celebrated in religious rites of ancient Greece.
They portray a maiden in long black robe, a shape-shifting dancing shadow with blurred outlines, an intangible dark faerie. In another image, she is naked and seductive, ready to transform into a long-necked fiend.
According to Bunnag, Dryopes refers to metamorphosis, while referencing a local settlement close to where these images were captured. His photographic works aim to capture the kinetic energy of the dancer’s motion as she traced out a kind of text upon the ancient landscape, revealing the pattern of life, lost epiphanies and discarded selves that we encounter in familiar places.
The 41-year-old filmmaker grew up in Greece and England before moving to Bangkok in 2005. He graduated with an MA in history from the University of Edinburgh. His first film was Greek-language fiction narrative All For Nothing.
Kathmandu Photo Gallery is on Pan Road, near the Indian temple of Silom, and is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 11am-6pm.