Abandoned houses in Chios by Maya Fischer
Houses as mirrors of Chios in 2007 @Maya K. Fischer
During the Kids' Guernica exhibition in Chios, Maya Fischer did not only the photo documentation, but explored herself something unique in a city with a harbour and many abandoned buildings. Time scratches on walls. Doors and windows become linked to the open sky once the roof is gone. What remains are stories to be guessed as to who lived there once upon a time. Tragedy does unfold in often surreal ways. A photographer can capture these images often overlooked when merely passing by. It is a testimony of time. Once the bulldozers come, these artistic like ruins are erased as if the city wishes to be no longer remembered that there were different times when buildings gave shape to quite a different interface.
or else the photographer catchers herself in the mirror as if looking back is looking ahead.
Photographing houses is like in painting resembling still life but with a major difference for the photos bring back to life something which are more than mere memories retained in faded paints on walls or what a door once experienced when people walk in or out of the house now but a shade of its former self. Remnants transport pieces of these evidences into the future.
An abandoned house looks so forlorn
Looking skywards, the ruin of a house makes one wonder if this is the result of neglect with man simply moving on or are there still other reasons to tale of such a city?
Like paintings these abandoned houses stand still, while wind, sun and time continue to do their work to underline an utmost patience with what shall manifest itself as changes over time.
When a tower stretches in the direction of the sky, that sense of abandonment is lost for that is merely a matter of the ground and what can stand still on earth while capitulating to time.
A single window amidst a Skaspeare like setting of much to do about nothing once nature takes over and the poetic image of untamed places makes a plot of land in a city into an environmental paradise.
The insignificant takes on significance once not everything used has also value for city of Chios.
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