Camera captures lives of others

by Mitchell Jordan
The camera might not lie, but when Sydney artist Steven Papadakis photographed a group of friends he had no idea how the images would turn out.
The result is Lightroom Series, a collection of 12 portraits that opens in Sydney on 21 July.
Papadakis has fused photography with painting to create rich, organic images that run the gamut of emotions.
I sat down with each of the people and talked to them while taking their photo. Not even I quite knew what I was looking for, he told Sydney Star Observer.
The images took eight months for Papadakis to produce. Their raw honesty is what he likes most. They are beautiful shots but I captured a side that maybe they did not want to see.
Papadakis said it was difficult keeping distance between himself and the subject matter.
Working with people I knew was the most intense thing, he said. A lot of them were artists who were not used to being on the other side of the camera.
The intensity was heightened when Papadakis decided to include himself in the series. Using Stanislavski-like methods of memory recall, Papadakis travelled deep into his inner psyche.
I started gagging myself and was coughing when I took the photo Surrender of Self, he said, but those are the things you do for your art. I didn’t just want to pose.
The experience had such an effect on Papadakis he has decided his next exhibition will be based entirely on him.
Lightroom Series debuted in Melbourne earlier this year, but the Sydney show is equally as exciting for Papadakis.
Sydney is my home town and I think the crowd will be different, he said. We’re a little bit more twisted here.
The Sydney exhibition is also the first time that his self-portrait will be shown. I wasn’t ready to do it at the time of the Melbourne show and it wouldn’t have been an accurate reflection of me.
Growing up gay in a Greek family, Papadakis found a refuge of sorts in art. It was a huge outlet for me, he said.
In many ways, Lightroom Series brings Papadakis full circle. Not only is he now living in his home town of Marrickville, but he has also resumed painting, the very medium he first used as a teenager.
After looking at some of my earlier paintings and then my photographs, I realised my styles were the same, he said.
Returning to painting was an easy transition.
info: Lightroom Series runs from 21 July to 9 August at Storm Gallery, 2/65-67 Foveaux St, Surry Hills.