Soti Tyrologou lives and works in Kavala, Greece.

She got engaged in photography in 2011 through Kavala’s Photo Club. Since then, she has followed several intensive photography courses and workshops held by well-known photographers and visual artists.

Her work has been published in printed and digital magazines.

About ‘Insensibly‘ – words by Soti Tyrologou:

During the last few months, we have been experiencing unprecedented conditions of confinement and isolation, sensing threat and uncertainty. The radical restriction measures taken practically overnight all over the world, came as a great shock to most of us, affecting everyday life, changing our perspective and leaving us a sense that nothing will be the same anymore.

The series “Insensibly” was realized during the period of the lockdown. The work draws inspiration from a poem titled “Walls”, written by the Greek poet C.P.Cavafy:

“Without reflection, without mercy, without shame,
they built strong walls and high, and compassed me about. And now I sit here and consider and despair.
My brain is worn with meditating on my fate:
I had outside so many things to terminate.
Oh! why when they were building did I not beware!
But never a sound of building, never an echo came.
Out of the world, insensibly, they shut me out.”

This new experience of self-imprisonment reveals hidden aspects of our notion of freedom. As the poet realizes, his “walls” were built without noticing and suddenly he finds himself excluded from the world. This raises the question “am I really free?” or is freedom a subjective illusion?

This hard situation makes us grasp the elements of this construction. Social, ethical or economical barriers form our personal walls, often constructing a labyrinth, where we get lost among unfulfilled desires, contradictions, or misconceptions. These walls, built by both “us and them” can be a starting point for us to reflect on issues such as social exclusion and discrimination, immigration, equality and fraternity. It is a chance for us to take a moment and be quiet and listen. Listen to the echoes of our world within.