Stavros Makridis belongs to that rare category of people who live and breathe through art, and for art. Time and again, he has plunged deep into its waters, and each time he has surfaced, he has emerged with a different kind of baptism, something his extensive biography makes abundantly clear. He was born in Thessaloniki in 1983, while his musical journey began in Katerini, where he studied bouzouki under Stelios Xafis, a student of Haris Lemonopoulos. After succeeding his university exams, he registered at the Department of Music Technology and Acoustics Engineering in Rethymno, where he attended several courses. A few years later, the judges accepted him as one of the 29 participants in the television reality show Fame Story 3. At the same time, he graduated from IEK AKMI Thessaloniki and EOPPEP with a specialisation in sound engineering. He then rolled up his sleeves and worked in this field in more than 15 cities and islands across Greece and Italy.
In music, he has collaborated with Heaven Music, People Entertainment, and Vasilis Papakonstantinou, and he appeared as a singer at the 27th River Party in Kastoria. As a songwriter, he has composed more than 400 songs and musical pieces, yet he does not stop there. He picked up the pencil and went on to publish four poetry collections, four short stories, a book of reflective prose, and a text in Braille. He has created a short film, which was selected for screening at the 9th International Video Poetry Festival, and his work has begun to receive various awards. He has won first prize in poetry and first prize in song composition at the InterArtia Festival, as well as second prize in the 6th U Write poetry competition. He has also been involved in theatre, painting, radio, and photography.
In 2022, one of his photographs won first prize from the Hellenic Photographic Society in a competition on the theme of Surrealism. In 2023, he won first prize from Kyklops in the photography competition Light and Shadow. In 2024, he won both first prize in colour photography and first prize in black-and-white photography at the 3rd Panhellenic Kefalos Artistic Competition.
He has taken part in various group exhibitions in Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, Thessaloniki, Athens, Manhattan, and elsewhere, and one of his photographs has been published in Photographer magazine. Finally, he has worked as a music educator at a creative activity centre for people with disabilities. He is described as a multi-instrumentalist. He is currently studying Byzantine music, taking private lessons in Pontic lyra, and is a premium member of Moments Collective.
You can follow Stavros on Instagram at @nota.photography_art and through his website: https://nota-photography.webnode.gr/.
1) Do you try to make your photographs tell a story or convey a message? If so, what steps do you take to achieve that?
Although I know that an artist’s personal identity, that is seeing a work and recognising whose it is, is something difficult to achieve, I nevertheless try, as much as possible, to make my ideas authentic and original.
Sometimes my photographs are intended to say something specific, and at other times I leave each viewer free to give their own interpretation. In order to convey a specific message, one needs to provide certain elements or pieces of information connected to that message, either directly or indirectly. That is what I try to do as well.
2) What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your photographic journey that would have helped you greatly as a beginner?
I wish I had known certain photographic techniques better, such as studio lighting, as well as editing techniques in Photoshop. I also wish I had known some “secrets” for outdoor shooting with natural light.
In addition, I would have liked to know more about shadows and how they can enhance a photograph.
3) Which photographer’s work has inspired or influenced you?
I am certain that I have been influenced by many images by different photographers that I have seen over time. I do not know all their names, because the overabundance of information on social media usually overshadows them.
I admire the work of Renos Kostopoulos and Kalliopi Voutzali. Their work is a source of inspiration in many ways. Above all, I like their aesthetic.
4) What is the most common criticism you receive about your photographs or about the kind of photography you love?
I think that, because I have been involved with various arts for quite a few years, I have developed a certain objectivity in the way I evaluate my own work, although I am not sure there is such a thing as objective aesthetics when it comes to art. I believe it is more a matter of each person’s personal opinion.
The comments I usually hear from my social circle are positive. Most of the time, I like my own work too. And if we take into account certain awards and distinctions, it would seem that my photographs are appreciated.
Still, I am certain they do not appeal to everyone. And here I would like to emphasise something. Even if you are John Lennon, some people will like you and others will not. With that in mind, I try, as far as I can, not to pay too much attention to criticism, but to continue being inspired and to create work that, first and foremost, satisfies me.
The exception is people I trust, whose opinion I believe can help me evolve.
5) How do you develop your artistic skills beyond the works you have already created? Are there particular ways in which you practise your artistic inspiration?
I believe that practice is part of growth in everything.
Something else I try to do, step by step, is to discover more aspects of myself, so that over time my work can become as authentic as possible.
I also have the desire to attend photography lessons, either through a school or with an experienced teacher, in order to gain knowledge and, by extension, develop my artistic skills.
What also helps me practise my artistic inspiration is allowing my mind and spirit to remain open to the various possible new stimuli that may arise.
