ac gounaris

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1969, now in Athens. Lived in the US for 6 years, came back, had 3 beautiful children: Erifili, among other things a travel photographer, Elisavet, a recoding musician and Dino who is oscillating wildly between future race car driver and football player (so watch this space!).

My father, and photography mentor, gave me a small tripod at the tender age of 2, which I referred to as “my little camera”. That worked only for a while, until I realized I’d been had. There was a negotiated settlement and a Kodak Retina S1 found its way to my hands, which appeased me for a while and quenched my thirst for gear that I had no idea how to use. Years passed and I continued to pester my father for another camera until one fine morning in late 1980, he entrusted me with his Nikon F2A Photomic with 2 fast primes. There I was, no excuses left, so I had to put the gear to good use.
Fast forward to present day. More cameras and lenses than I care to admit passed through my hands, only to realize that the ultimate image making tool is the eye. I got two of them, so I feel blessed. Humbled by the knowledge that everything I set my eye on to has been seen and captured before by giants of the photographic art, I nevertheless still strive to produce images that depict the world as I see it.
How do I see it, one may ask. Through the eyes of a technocrat with an artistic view, or an artist with a technocratic view? Left and right side of the brain are in constant battle for supremacy. At the rare occasions that the two coexist in harmony, images are born that are a synergistic outcome rather than a result of the victory of one over the other side. See, manager or photographer, I still have these two same eyes to serve both functions.
So, straight from my eye, through the light press of my finger on the shutter release, here it is: big, small, abstract, colorful, minimal, kitsch, funny, sad, natural, pretty and everything in between is here for your viewing.